'Claro, Claro, Pandaraya!'

THE CLEAR cheating that took place in the May 10 elections is finally bubbling to the surface with the current joint session of Congress, which is sitting as the National Board of Canvassers.

The first two days of discussions, shown live on the ANC TV news channel, were sedate except for the outburst caused by a visitor in the public gallery who on Wednesday passed a note to opposition Representative Didagen Dilangalen telling him to shut up because he was wasting taxpayers' money. Thankfully, the woman was ejected with her daughter, who it turned out were, unsurprisingly, die-hard President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo supporters.

As I write this on Thursday, the joint session has been momentarily suspended after Dilangalen showed, while interpellating, that election returns from a certain "barangay" [neighborhood district] in District 1 of Cebu City were tampered with, changing President Macapagal-Arroyo's tally from 41 to 140, and Fernando Poe Jr.'s from 13 to 14. He then said House Speaker Jose de Venecia was avoiding the truth and trying to cover up for President Macapagal-Arroyo. That is when he said: "Claro, claro, pandaraya!"

Before this accusation was hurled at the administration, Senator Aquilino Pimentel gave a very lucid and intelligent explanation of why the National Board of Canvassers should be given the power to dig deeper than just the certificates of canvass, which he claimed would not show the real extent of vote manipulation.

The administration's main attack bully, Senator Joker Arroyo, on Wednesday complained that it would take the National Board of Canvassers almost three-and-a-half months if every member were allowed to examine the 176 certificates of canvass (CoCs). Now the administration lawmakers are pushing for a quicker count by committee, while the opposition says that whole National Board of Canvassers should be allowed to examine the CoCs.

I really believe that it is the duty of the National Board of Canvassers to look into all charges of vote manipulation and fraud thoroughly, and not just be a rubber stamp for the Commission on Elections.

As Pimentel said on Thursday, the administration politicians should not ram down the throats of the opposition rules concerning the canvass of the votes. Doing so will only leave the impression that the Macapagal-Arroyo administration has something to hide. For the results of the May 10 elections to have legitimacy in the eyes of the Philippine public, and in the eyes of the world, all vote counting irregularities have to be looked into. Even if it takes the National Board of Canvassers three months to check all anomalies, then so be it.

I know that many of you will protest that it's not the role of the National Board of Canvassers to look into election anomalies, claiming that the Supreme Electoral Tribunal is better suited to look into such cases. I hold that the National Board of Canvassers has the right to look further into election returns that bear suspicious erasures. If they don't, then complaints get sent to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal and are quickly forgotten by the public.

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The continued abuse of Filipina maids

FILIPINO women who work abroad as domestic helpers continue to be the most vulnerable of overseas Filipino workers. The news this week that the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is sending a team to Beirut, Lebanon, to investigate the suspicious deaths of three Filipino maids there, brought that point home again.

All three victims, Louella Montenegro who died February 24, Catherine Bautista who died on May 3, and an unnamed third victim who died on May 16, fell to their deaths while trying to escape from their abusive employers. In Bautista's case, her family claims that she was told by the daughter of former ambassador Roy Señeres to go to the Philippine embassy in Beirut and await further instructions. Unfortunately for Bautista, embassy officials told her to return to her employer. Shortly afterwards, Bautista fell to her death while attempting another escape.

The Lebanese police have agreed to reopen her case upon pressure from the Philippine government, and have launched a criminal investigation after National Bureau of Investigation examiners in the Philippines said Bautista had a head fracture due to clubbing and not from a fall.

The DFA team should make sure that criminal charges are filed against all three sets of employers, and they should find out who at the Philippine Embassy told Bautista to return to her employer. Already, embassy officials are playing a game of "I'm not to blame?" Labor attaché Alicia Santos told INQ7.net that she had already been transferred to Rome, Italy, when the whole Bautista incident took place. She pointed the finger to the current labor attaché in Lebanon, Mrs. Liddy Tañedo.

The DFA should make it their policy not to force runaway maids to return to abusive employers. If no reconciliation can be achieved, or if there is any doubt as to the continued safety of the maid if she returns to work, the maid should be sent back to the Philippines.

Abusive employers treat their maids as modern-day slaves, locking them in when the employers go out, not giving them days off, and sometimes beating up and sexually abusing them. Not covered by labor laws, maids have little legal recourse to complain about 18-hour workdays and delayed salaries. The least that Philippine missions abroad can do for them is provide with them refuge and help them return home.

Comments or questions? E-mail me at rasheed@arabnews.com.