PPCRV VIOLATES COMELEC REGULATION ON CITIZEN ARM

On October 26, 2009, the COMELEC issued a resolution granting PPCRV’s petition for its accreditation as Citizen’s Arm for the 2010 elections after an exact and hasty twenty one (21) days of processing.
PPCRV’s accreditation as Citizen’s Arm is subject to the following conditions of the COMELEC:
1. That PPCRV is subject to the direct and immediate control of the Commission and shall comply with all lawful orders;
PPCRV clearly did not comply with the proper process it should undergo when filing a petition to become a Citizen’s Arm. One of which is the publication of its petition in a newspaper of national circulation for three (3) consecutive weeks. Clearly, a violation was committed because PPCRV only published once and in a relatively unknown newspaper at that. It can be noted that at the time PPCRV filed its petition to become a Citizen’s Arm the country was at the height of devastation as typhoons Pepeng and Ondoy slaughtered many lives and properties—an issue taken advantage by PPCRV to go to COMELEC unnoticed. The organization’s negligence of the process denied the Filipino voters their right to decide whether PPCRV is credible enough to be their watchdog in the coming elections. There is definitely no doubt as to why there were no oppositors to its petition.

2. That PPCRV shall be non-partisan and impartial during the election period;
It is noteworthy that Johnny O.R. Cardenas, one of PPCRV’s Board of Directors is the incumbent president of Kapatiran sa Pangkalahatang Kabutihan (KPK). Ang Kapatiran Party (AKP) is borne out of KPK and was accredited by the COMELEC as a national political party. Furthermore, AKP is the Political Party List of Presidential candidate Eddie Villanueva. How then could it serve its duty of being impartial?

3. That PPCRV shall not be under the influence whatsoever of any foreign government corporation, or entity and shall not solicit or receive, directly or indirectly, any contribution or aid of whatever form or nature from any government, corporation, or entity, and that neither shall said organization nor any of its members seek to achieve its objectives or programs through violence, or aim to propagate ideology opposed to the principles of republican and democratic governments;

To note, PPCRV has an existing MOA with Philippine Computer Society (PCS), a private organization. This is a discernible indication of PPCRV’s incompetence having to hire PCS for the development of a system that would pave way for effective information dissemination and monitoring on the automated elections in May 2010—one of PPCRV’s task. The latter unmistakably violated the above condition. To further stress, COMELEC’s laxity and inexplicable lenience of PPCRV’s misconducts poses an alarming issue.

A citizen’s arm plays a vital role in the elections and having an inept and ungovernable organization holding a very critical position is like hiring a nurse for an engineering position. The 2010 election is yet the most critical for us Filipinos, not only because it is the first automated election we will undertake but also and more importantly because the Filipino people are thirsty for a genuine societal change. Are we to wait for an electoral sabotage or fraud to take place before we act on this disquieting issue?