BPM’s next target: Electoral reforms

After conceding defeat in last month’s elections, the Bangon Pilipinas Movement (BPM) of evangelist Eduardo Villanueva is set to embark on a mission to ensure that modernized reforms in the electoral process are instituted.

In an interview, BPM spokesman Luis Sison said the party will submit a proposal to the incoming legislators in the 13th Congress.

He vowed that the BPM will monitor the progress of their proposal on the floor.

BPM officials noted that poll reforms should be shaped by responsible lawmakers to prevent a repeat of the problems that hounded previous elections.

Sison said the electoral process — covering registration, voting and counting — should be modernized.

The automation of the electoral exercise was not implemented in the May 10 polls after the Supreme Court nullified in January a P1.249-billion contract that the Commission on Elections awarded to a private consortium to provide automated ballot counting machines.

Voters went back to the traditional way of casting ballots and counting was done manually.

Allegations of poll fraud and cheating highlighted the May elections apart from the commonly experienced problems during elections like missing names in the registration and violation of election laws by candidates and their supporters.

Sison said their new mission is consistent with their goal of attaining national moral renewal.

"Our purpose in bringing the message of righteousness across the nation has been successful since our national renewal program has become the center of public attention," he said.

The BMP, Sison said, has also agreed to work on fighting the misuse of government funds, particularly by incumbent officials during the election season.

"The issues on campaign financing and use of government funds during elections should be given proper assessment," he said.

The last Philippine elections, Sison said, was a very big disappointment. "In India, they knew the winners the next day after elections. But in ours, it has been almost a month and we still don’t know our new president."

Congress, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers, is still in the thick of canvassing votes to determine who won as president and vice president.

Under the law, only Congress can proclaim the winners which should be done before June 30, when President Arroyo’s term ends.

Villanueva, BPM standard-bearer, urged yesterday legislators to prioritize the credibility of the canvass results rather than beating the deadline.

"The issue should be the credibility of the results, and not the speed of canvassing," he said in a statement.

Villanueva called on both administration and opposition solons to arrive at a compromise on the issue of whether Certificates of Canvass (COCs) should be compared with election returns.

The televangelist, who ran under the platform of righteous governance, agreed with the opposition in demanding that the COCs must be compared with the election returns to resolve once and for all the issue of alleged poll fraud.

But Villanueva noted that only the COCs being questioned should be compared with the election returns so as not to further delay the canvass.

The consistency of the two election documents should be thoroughly checked, he said.

Villanueva himself has cried foul over alleged widespread poll fraud. The BPM said that most of the evidence they have gathered point to the administration as the culprit.

Villanueva said BPM lawyers are preparing to file appropriate charges with the Comelec.

BPM officials have maintained they have enough proof to show that massive cheating took place. They said they have gathered evidence on the disenfranchisement of voters and fraud in the canvassing of votes in the local level.

"We have the evidence to show that the disenfranchisement of voters was deliberately done to prevent them from voting because some other people already (voted) for them," the BPM said in a statement.

The party said they also have proof showing disparities in the statement of votes between the municipal and provincial levels.

"Our lawyers are already collating the evidence in coordination with other parties," Villanueva said.