Int’l poll observers in 10 areas in Pampanga

SAN FERNANDO CITY, Philippines – Foreign observers are set to monitor the May 13 elections in 7 towns and 3 cities of vote-rich Pampanga, one of the provinces identified as election hot spots this year.

The Compact for Peaceful and Democratic Elections-International Observers Mission 2013 (Compact-IOM 2013) Pampanga team will monitor the elections in the towns of Lubao, Floridablanca, Guagua, Sasmuan, Magalang, Mexico and Arayat, and the cities of Angeles, Mabalacat and San Fernando.

Compact-IOM 2013 will focus on issues of political dynasties, vote buying, vote denial, and election-related violence, said their spokesperson Daniel Mann. The team consists of 27- to 32-year-old students and workers involved in peace-building and development efforts.

Mann said his group chose Pampanga because of the rivalries for the congressional and gubernatorial races.

The Liberal Party (LP) fielded former provincial administrator Atty Vivian Dabu against incumbent representative and former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for the 2nd district representative post. Also running under LP, former priest-governor Eddie Panlilio is challenging Gov Lilia Pineda in the gubernatorial race.

Arroyo is the first Philippine president who ran for a lower office after over a 9-year rule from 2001 to 2010. She was not able to campaign for her bid for a second term in Congress, having been under hospital arrest since October 2012 for alleged plunder of a P325-million intelligence fund of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

Pineda, wife of an alleged jueteng financier, is being contested for the third time by Panlilio, who has applied to be removed from the priesthood when nobody dared to fight her.

Pineda’s running mate is her only son Dennis. Her daughter Mylyn is running unopposed as mayor of Lubao, while her daughter-in-law Yolanda faces a token opposition in Sta. Rita.

Other teams of Compact-IOM 2013 are also monitoring “iconic electoral battles” between reformers and traditional politicians in Cagayan, Camarines Sur, Masbate, Cebu and the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), said Arnold Tarrobago, national coordinator of Compact-IOM 2013.

These include the fight between Atty Leni Robredo and Nelly Villafuerte in the third district of Camarines Norte, ARMM officer-in-charge Mujiv Hataman and Pax Mangudadatu in the ARMM gubernatorial race, and Fr Leo Casas and the Kho and Lanete families for the governorship in Masbate. — Rappler.com