Recent reports and admissions of cheating in the 2004 and 2007 elections reveal the magnitude and depth of fraud in the country. Revelations linking the top brass in the military and police to poll cheating underscore the bigger picture of an institutional malady that has been pestering the country’s electoral process involving the powers that be, some election officials, and some government authorities.

Investigations of election cheating warrant the Filipino people’s support and vigilant monitoring. But these are not enough in ensuring the credibility of the electoral process so vital to making democracy work. When truth triumphs in these investigations, never again should anybody including the high and mighty be spared from accountability, prosecution, and conviction. Other institutions that play a key role in making elections credible such as Congress, the rule of law and court system, and other agencies should also function consistent with their mandate and beyond reproach.

Glaring in the recent exposes’ is the secrecy and manipulation of information that has kept election cheating beyond public scrutiny. When public information is made inaccessible by powerful invisible hands with vested interests to protect then transparency and accountability are compromised, democracy is threatened, and justice is not served particularly to those with legitimate election protests.

Even as we - various multi-stakeholders in the electoral process - now persevere in correcting the flaws of poll automation as we observed and documented in 2010, our efforts will come to naught if the cheaters remain unpunished and the machineries they operate lurk to await the next elections. The credibility of elections is guaranteed not only by poll automation system – no matter how flawless and well-managed it is – but by institutional capabilities that secure the electoral process from fraud. Democracy is enhanced in an equal playing field that allows even those without the guns, goons, and gold to win in an election.

Due to these concerns, we now declare:

1. For Congress through the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee (JCOC) as well as the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reform (CSER) and Senate Committee on Electoral Reform to complete the full assessment of the 2010 automated elections as a step toward legislative preparations for the next elections;
   
2. To support and endorse the proposed bill drafted by CenPEG and the AES Watch for adoption by members of Congress toward amending the election modernization law (RA 9369) and to further ensure the transparency, accuracy, and auditability of the next automated elections;
   
3. To support, prioritize, and legislate the harnessing of Filipino IT in the design and development of the automated election system for use in future elections;
   
4. To support the enactment of a Freedom of Information (FOI) law as a key measure not only to ensure transparency and accountability in the electoral process but, as whole, for effective governance, and people’s participation in public affairs particularly the fight against corruption

Finally, as we gave recognition today to three avid advocates for transparency, security and auditability of the May 2010 automated election who are now in key positions of public service – 20th UP President Alfredo Pascual (former AES Watch spokesperson), Sen. Koko Pimentel (one of CenPEG’s lead counsels in the landmark and victorious mandamus case on the source code in the Supreme Court), and Comelec Commissioner Gus Lagman (former AES Watch co-convener), we also challenge them to play an active role and take the lead this time as public servants to promote institutional reform in governance and the electoral system in particular. We ask the key institutions of which they now are part to support the reform initiatives that Sen. Pimentel, Commissioner Lagman, and UP President Pascual are now undertaking.

SIGNED during the Multi-Stakeholders Consultation on Electoral Reform on August 20, 2011, UP Alumni Café, Quezon City, Philippines.

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