Although the spotlight in Manila has consistently fallen for
weeks on the massive Pork Barrel scandal which has implicated dozens of
lawmakers in a scheme to loot development funds for the poor, the government of
President Benigno S. Aquino III has been making quiet inroads against political
corruption by cleaning up some of the institutions that allow it to flourish.
Much has been written about efforts to clean up the competitive
bid process for government contracts. However, an equally important area – if
it isn’t more important – is election reform, which the reconstituted
Commission on Elections, or Comelec, has been pursuing steadily. The system for
decades has turned a blind eye to massive vote-buying , ballot box stuffing and
other misuses. What has become known as the “Hello Garci scandal” took place in
2005 when a wiretapped phone call caught then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
and then-Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano talking about the rigging of
the 2004 national election results.
That isn’t to say that the reform progress has been smooth,
or as decisive as it could or should be.
Aquino himself has been accused of
maintaining buckets of discretionary money to fund pork barrel projects of his
own. He has also been accused of moving far too slowly to clean up corruption
on the part of his administration, and of leaving cronies in place after they
have been unmasked.
In surveys released earlier this week, for instance, it
appears that the pork barrel funding scandal has cut sharply into Aquino’s
trust rating, with Social Weather Stations reporting his previously
astronomical trust ratings had dropped from “very good” in June to merely
“good” in September. Pulse Asia found that 67 percent believe corrupt practices
during the Arroyo administration have continued under Aquino.
There is plenty of work to be done. The Manila-based Social
Weather Stations polling organization in 2012 rated public perceptions of
Comelec to be on a par with levels of corruption with the Philippine National
Police, the Bureaus of Internal Revenue and Customs and the Department of
Public Works and Highways.
Aquino caused initial consternation by appointing as Comelec
chairman Sixto Brillantes, who as a private lawyer defended both deposed former
President Joseph Estrada and Andal Ampatuan Jr, the purported mastermind behind
the 2010 murders of more than 50 people, including 35 journalists, in what has
become known as the Maguindanao Massacre. Brillantes, however, has been at the
center of two decisions cleaning up the electoral process, and he has sought
vainly to purge the so-called party lists of bogus political groups.
The party lists were established by the 1987 reform
constitution to allow under-represented sectoral groups, such as labor,
peasants, the urban poor, indigenous cultural communities, women and youth to
participate in the electoral system. However, the system has been commandeered
by elected officials who have created their own camouflaged parties as allies
in the party lists, funding their candidatures through patronage and outright
vote buying.
Aquino also appointed Luie Guia, executive director of the
Legal Network for Truthful Elections, and Al Parreño, a board member of the Land
Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), as new Comelec
commissioners. Both are considered above reproach and they have given Aquino a
majority on the commission.
The Manila-based country risk firm Pacific Strategies and
Assessments, in an Oct. 21 report, pointed out that the administration
postponed two elections in 2011 to clean voter lists in Mindanao of the names
of more than 280,000 dead, under age or multiple registrants, and has followed
that up with a number of other institutional reforms.
“A barometer of the Aquino administration’s sincerity in
improving the electoral system is its ability to push for legislation that can
further empower the Commission on Elections and update election laws,”
according to the PSA report, which is available only to subscribers. “There is
a need to make the existing campaign finance regulations realistic and to amend
the 28-year-old Omnibus Elections Code to integrate poll automation issues and
violations.”
Comelec in September disqualified a local governor allied
with the party headed by current Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, from office for
campaign overspending and in October disqualified four other local politicians
for vote-buying . To opposition accusations that the disqualifications were
politically motivated, Aquino pointed out that two of the prohibitions, from a
municipality in Bulacan province, were from his own Liberal Party.
“The quality of future leadership in the Philippines is
dependent on electoral reforms that enable the commission to weed out
candidates involved in illicit activities and eventually improve the caliber of
political leaders,” the PSA report said. “An improved electoral system
contributes to political stability and restores the public’s trust in
the power of the ballot to remove underperforming and corrupt officials.” Asia
Sentinel
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