PHILI pp INES : ADV A NCING REFO R MS IN PHILIppINE ELECTION ADMINIST ra TION IFES FIN A L PR OJECT RE P O R T October 2005 - November 2008 This publication was produced by IFES for the U.S. Agency for Interna- tional Development concerning cooperative agreement NO. 492-A-00-05- 00027-00. IFES is an international nonprofit organization that supports the building of democratic societies. Additional information is online at www.ifes.org. February 28, 2008 This publication was produced by IFES for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Agreement No. 492-A-00-05-00027-00. Disclaimer The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) or the United States Government. Final Project Report Philippines: Advancing Reforms in Philippine Election Administration Copyright © IFES. All rights reserved. IFES 1101 15th Street, NW Ste. 300 Washington, D.C. U.S.A. Notice of rights All rights reserved. No part of this report can be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means without the prior permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America. IFES Acknowledgements This publication was made possible through the generous support of the American People through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), under the terms of Agreement No. 492-A-00-05-00027-00. IFES would also like to express appreciation to USAID for its continuing support during this project. Special thanks are due to Stephen Edminster, Gerry Porta, Maria Rendon, Robert Wuertz, Christian Hougen and Raymond Edler. IFES also thanks the US Ambassador Kristie Kenney and her capable political section. And, while the list of local stakeholders who provided IFES with access, information, and cooperation is too long to mention, IFES would like to recognize the following people and organizations for their contributions to this program: The Philippine Commission on Elections, its officials and staff for their cooperation, assistance and dedication; IFES’ civil society partners, the University of the Philippines National College of Public Administration and Governance, the Citizens Coalition for ARMM Electoral Reform, the Lawyers League for Liberty, the Transparency and Accountability Network, the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform, the Consortium on Electoral Reforms, the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, the Legal Network for Truthful Elections, the Philippine Judicial Academy and the Center for Community Journalism and Development for their constant commitment and hard work; The Philippine Commission on Human Rights, its Commissioners and staff; International IDEA for their generous donation of materials for the COMELEC Election Resource and Training Center. IFES Philippine staff members Stella Platon, Mariam Ali, Chyn San Juan, Fidel Guidote, Garie Briones, Karla Guia, Art Romasanta, Melody Cacas and IFES staff and consultants Foster Tucker, Jorge Tirado, Ian Smith, Peter Erben, Michael Yard, Linda Edgeworth, Luie Guia, Hank Valentino, JJ Calero, Cleo Calimbahin and Benjamin Barretto. It would have been impossible to carry out this project without their able assistance, commitment, and expertise. IFES would finally like to recognize the research, editing and publication assistance provided by members of its staff including Beverly Hagerdon Thakur, Vasu Mohan, Paulina Ojeda, Mara Krier, Megan Ritchie and Megan Greeley. Table of Contents IFES ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................. 4 I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 6 II. PROJECT CONTEXT ............................................................................................................ 7 III. PROJECT COMPONENTS/ACTIVITIES .......................................................................... 9 A. PROGRAM COMPONENT I: IFES’ WORK WITH THE COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES (COMELEC) ..................................................................................... 9 B. PROGRAM COMPONENT II: STRENGTHENING CIVIL SOCIETY .................................................. 17 C. COMPONENT III: POLITICAL AND FINANCIAL REFORM ............................................................ 37 IV. CONCLUSION/NEXT STEPS ........................................................................................... 40 V. ATTACHMENTS ................................................................................................................ 41 5 I. INTRODUCTION This final report concludes the implementation of IFES’ activities carried out under the program “Advancing Reforms in Philippine Election Administration”” with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The program was implemented from October 1, 2005 through November 30, 2008. IFES is an international NGO that supports development of democracy around the world. Since 1987, IFES has been engaged in a broad range of democracy and governance programming, including elections assistance, in more than 100 countries. IFES is widely known for the nonpartisan role it maintains in elections and for the consistent quality of the technical electoral assistance services it provides. The Advancing Reforms in Philippine Election Administration program was built on the recommendations proposed by a team of IFES consultants who traveled to the Philippines in March 2004 to assess the political situation, at the invitation of the President of the Republic of the Philippines. The team found that the 2004 election cycle was plagued by operational and political deficiencies, such as the use of manual election methodologies, and a deficient level of training of election officials by the COMELEC1. The final report recommended supporting modernized electoral reform in many areas, including voter education, legal framework and institutional change within the election administration itself. As a result, IFES designed this project to address the immediate and long-term electoral reform agenda by working through civil society and directly with the COMELEC. Over the 3.2 years of the project, IFES achieved important results such as: 1. Enhancing the professional capacity of COMELEC through the establishment of standardized training resources, including an Election Handbook and Training Guide and the Election Resource and Training Center2 (ERTC); 2. Establishing Citizens CARE, the only volunteer and wide-reaching election monitoring and voter education network in the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM); and, 3. Assisting key local partners to build Philippine election capacity to conduct modern elections and increase confidence in the electoral process, closing the knowledge gap in the areas of election adjudication, the appointment of COMELEC Commissioners, political finance, election automation, and more. 1 The Philippine Commission on Elections, abbreviated as “COMELEC.” 2 COMELEC named this the Bagongbotante Knowledge Base Center. 6 II. PROJECT CONTEXT The overall goal of the Advancing Reforms in Philippine Election Administration program was to strengthen the key foundations of democratic governance in the Philippines. IFES proposed to meet this overall goal by a) increasing the capacity of the COMELEC and thereby improving election administration and management; b) engaging civil society in the electoral reform movement; and c) providing technical assistance to both civil society groups and the COMELEC in encouraging comprehensive legal reform. Throughout the course of the program, IFES navigated a volatile political and electoral environment. The May 2007 Synchronized National and Local Elections3, the main electoral exercise conducted during this program, was deemed an overall success by most international and domestic observer groups. However, IFES observers who were deployed around the country with local partner organizations documented notable exceptions, such as vote-buying, underage voting, “flying” voters and a lack of secrecy of the ballot. Furthermore, the delayed signing of the automation bill into law by President Arroyo pushed COMELEC to postpone automation of the elections to 2010, sparked furious debate between COMELEC, Congress and technical experts on COMELEC’s ability to automate as required by law. After the May 2007 elections, corruption allegations led to recurring changes in the leadership of COMELEC. This affected IFES’ ability to work with the electoral body until the last month of this program, when IFES was able to implement its two long-awaited programs, the Election Technology and Vendor Fair Exhibition (ETCVE) and the inauguration of the Election Resource and Training Center (ERTC)4. These achievements were particularly remarkable, given that, for most of 2007, IFES’ relationship with the COMELEC was put on hold due to concerns by some Commissioners that IFES’ assistance to the COMELEC violated the ‘foreign intervention’ section of Article 9 of the Constitution on Constitutional Commissions. Under the leadership of current COMELEC Chairman Jose Melo, this issue was resolved and IFES’ cooperation with the COMELEC was re-invigorated. Also of great concern during this period was the assassination of two of COMELEC’s legal department heads. Attorney Alioden Dalaig was shot and killed outside of a Manila casino