“We need to keep our elections free and fair.”
Why do we need to closely watch how the May 2022 elections will unfold?
That’s because, as vice presidential candidate Sara Duterte said recently, integrity or honesty should not be an issue at all as politicians lie all the time.
We take that statement to mean that an honest politician is in fact an oxymoron. Or perhaps as rare as hen’s teeth.
Sara Duterte’s blunt statement that our politicians cannot be trusted to tell the truth and are more than likely to resort to the time-tested formula of “guns, goons and gold” to win in Philippine elections is one cogent reason why we need to keep the forthcoming political exercise on the radar screen.
We’re glad that various groups are gearing up to do what needs to be done: keep our elections free and fair.
Among them is the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP), which has launched an international observer mission (IOM) to monitor this year’s elections.
The IOM intends to conduct independent monitoring until the confirmation of elected candidates in June amid the “worsening human rights situation” under the Duterte administration and the “widespread corruption and violence…in past Philippine elections.”
According to ICHRP chairperson Peter Murphy, their observers will be bringing recording devices with them.
“Basically, a foreigner (will be) there close to the voting place in the company of other Filipino observers and with a recording device, either a notebook, a camera, or both, and a microphone, a way to record a voice as well,” explained Murphy, who has been an election observer in the past.
“In my experience, it’s unusual, a little bit unusual to see a foreigner present but it helps, it gives some confidence that there’s other eyes on the situation,” he said. He emphasized stressed that an international observer could offer a “protective presence” should human rights violations occur during their monitoring.
I fully agree with what the ICHRP is saying. In 1994, I joined an international observer group in El Salvador in Central America organized by a nonprofit group in the US, to monitor the elections there after the end of armed hostilities between the left-wing Frente Farabundo Marti para Liberacion Nacional (FMLN) and the conservative government. The political atmosphere was quite tense due to lingering doubt on whether the peace process would work. But even as the conservative candidate won that election, the demobilized FMLN kept its part of the peace process and to this day persists in parliamentary struggle as a legal political party.
Chinese ODA for infrastructure
If maritime and territorial claims in the South China Sea are a contentious issue in Philippines-China relations, economic cooperation appears to be proceeding without any hitches.
Take, for instance, the recent news that the Philippine government will commence negotiations with its Chinese counterpart to secure a loan to finance the P175-billion Philippine National Railways (PNR) train project that will run from Manila to Bicol.
The 565-kilometer PNR South Long Haul, one of the largest projects in the current administration’s infrastructure program, aims to cut travel time from Manila to Sorsogon from 12 hours to as little as four hours.
Chinese official development assistance (ODA) loans differ from those approved by other donors. Under Chinese ODA, contractor deals are finalized and awarded before the loan deals are negotiated.
Last month, the Department of Transportation announced the signing of a P142-billion contract with a Chinese railway consortium to build the first 380-km phase of the PNR Bicol project.
The design-build contract for the Banlic, Calamba, to Daraga, Albay stretch was signed with the venture of China Railway Group Ltd., China Railway No. 3 Engineering Group Co. Ltd. and China Railway Engineering Consulting Group Co. Ltd.
The contract would only be valid once the loan deal is finalized.
The PNR plans to start construction of the initial phase of the project within the first quarter of 2022. The Laguna to Albay section would be finished by the third quarter of 2025 while the rest of the line will be completed by 2027.
The PNR South Long Haul will have five contracts that will include the train coaches and the construction of the railway line. It will have 35 stations from Sucat in Manila up to Matnog, Sorsogon.
Another infrastructure project funded by Chinese ODA, this time in the form of a grant, is the Binondo-Intramuros bridge, which is already nearing completion after delays since it began in 2018. It is being built under the supervision of the Department of Public Works and Highways.
This bridge project is one of two planned to span the Pasig River and reduce Metro Manila traffic. The other one is the Estrella-Pantaleon bridge connecting the cities of Mandaluyong and Makati.
These projects prove that economic cooperation can prosper even as the two sides differ in their positions on the South China Sea issue, which they try to resolve through a bilateral consultative mechanism or BCM. (Email: ernhil@yahoo.com)
