Friday, April 27, 2007 Citizens' arm, Muslims forge alliance vs poll fraud By Ulysses E. Israel
A CITIZENS' arm of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and Muslim spiritual organizations in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm) forged a partnership with the signing of a memorandum of agreement for the holding of clean, honest, and credible elections in the region.
The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPRCV), an accredited citizens' arm by the Comelec, and the Assembly of the Darul Ifta of the Philippines formally signed a working agreement that will undertake measures and activities to protect the sanctity of the votes in the coming May elections.
Ambassador Henrietta T. de Villa represented the PPRCV while Mufti Abdulla Hamja Utoh signed the pact in behalf of the Assembly of the Darul Ifta of the Philippines.
The Assembly of the Darul Ifta of the Philippines is the official body of Filipino Muslims for issuing religious edicts.
It has committed to establishing a network of volunteer monitors and watchers who shall take the lead in monitoring, watching, and canvassing of votes in the Armm region, which includes Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sharif Kabungsuan, Tawi-Tawi, Basilan, Sulu and the city of Marawi.
Rene Sarmiento, Comelec Commissioner in charge for Mindanao who witnessed the signing held at Lantaka Hotel in Zamboanga City, hailed the memorandum of agreement as a "landmark document" because he said Christians and Muslims have forged a formal working document based on spiritual and moral precepts.
Sarmiento said the agreement "will help a lot and should be welcome by everybody to serve as a guide in reaffirming the commitment towards a vision of clean, honest, accurate, meaningful, and peaceful elections."
De Villa said the PPRCV is working to come up with 15,000 volunteers to serve in about 7,768 clustered poll precincts in the entire Armm region.
"We hope to have two poll watchers per poll precinct or at least 10 volunteers in one polling area," she told reporters.
Ustadz Esmael W. Ebrahim, member of the executive committee of the Assembly of the Darul Ifta, said the muftis will use the Friday sermon in mosques to encourage the Muslim faithful to go out and cast their votes on May 14.
The members of the Assembly, in a prepared statement, are calling on Muslims "to rise above the sarcastic perception that the Armm is the Philippines' cheating capital for elections and to rise against the cheaters' expectation that electoral fraudulence in Armm has been a commercial transaction of a few influential people."
The muftis enjoined the Moros to strengthen their resolve in exercising the right to cast vote and protect that right as a matter of duty and responsibility of a Muslim under the Shari'ah principle of Shura (consultation), which is the very essence of elections.
Both the PPRCV and the Assembly of the Darul Ifta of the Philippines vowed to work for the common goal of protecting the integrity of the electoral process and "to deter or prevent the commission of fraudulent acts in the May 2007 elections, particularly during the voting, counting, and canvassing process."
