DAVAO CITY - Efforts to ensure an
honest, orderly and peaceful polls in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao
(ARMM) on Monday (Aug 8) are in place with the opening of an election monitoring
center dubbed as "Kalinaw ARMM: Elections 2005" at the Mindanao
Economic Development Council (MEDCo) here.
On August 8, a composite team of MEDCo
Secretariat and the Mindanao Area Coordinating Center (MACC) will open
the "Kalinaw ARMM: Elections 2005" monitoring and action center
on election-related events and incidents all across Mindanao and ARMM areas.
The team will carry out monitoring activities from 8:00 am until 8:00 pm Monday to gather reports on election-related concerns from the ARMM provnices of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, Sulu, Basilan and Tawi-tawi.
As the designated base for the Kalinaw ARMM: Elections 2005, the MEDCo Conference room in Davao City will hook up round-the-clock communication lines with the ARMM regional offices of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) for reports on election- related violations; the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) for election-related concerns of LGUs; and the Philippine National Police, Armed Forces of the Philippines Southern Command and Mindanao Area Coordinating Center (MACC) for security problems, and the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) and the Mindanao Communicators Network (MINDACOMNET) Inc. for media reports.
The team shall come up with a validated summary report on incidents that take place over a six-hour monitoring period with the corresponding responses made by the agencies.
The report will also underscore areas of concerns that need immediate intervention by the concerned agencies.
MEDCo Chair Jesus Dureza said that the setting up of the monitoring center is a crucial initiative that redounds to the government's objective of carrying out a credible, orderly and peaceful elecions in ARMM.
"The government wants to ensure that ARMM elections is protected from any incident that might occur and that necessary coordination with concerned agencies is made for appropriate actions and responses," he said.
On Aug. 8, some two million ARMM voters would troop to polling places to elect a governor, a vice governor and members of the regional assembly. ARMM covers Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Basilan, Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao.
Despite earlier calls of some sectors to postpone the ARMM elections, the COMELEC has announced that the political exercise will push through on Monday, adding that necessary safeguards and mechanism are already in place to ensure a clean and organized elections. MEDCo