What's On & Expat - Philippines

Stefan Christoff
Canadian
International Observer

The political situation in the Philippines and the elections clearly are a time of turmoil. It’s clear, at least to us at this time, that there is a lot of repression. Now that’s not only in the context of the elections but it’s more broad. Now repression is being directed towards progressive political parties in the country. This is not something that’s random. It’s well thought-out, well planned. Given what I’ve learned since I’ve been here about the history of Philippine politics, the entrance of the party-list system has provided a small space for marginalized communities to participate in the electoral process and the political process. But even given the small number of seats allocated for the party-list system, still those progressive voices that have found some place in Congress are being persecuted. Now, we can talk about democracy, or we can talk about a democratic system. But if elected officials are being jailed, like in the case of Crispin Beltran, then that is not a democratic process. And that is very worrying.

Elizabeth
Hendrickson
American
International Observer

I am interested in seeing the election process here and I’ve read some articles in various media about some of the past elections and things that have happened. It’s a great opportunity to come here and be able to observe what is happening at the polling places and within the political system, to know what is the real situation within the voting precint.

Larry Emery
American
International Observer

Given what happened in the 2004 elections, I can’t help but believe that there’ll be more instances in this election that would cause concern. So I’m glad that there are so many observers here to help the Philippine people in their desire to have every vote counted and to have each person be able to participate in the election process. So I think it’s good to have this sort of international participation so the government knows that international eyes are here to watch what’s going on.

Johann Fobeleds
Belgian
International Observer

Because the election in 2004 saw massive fraud I think it’s important to come now to the Philippines and have a critical review of the things that are important for democracy in the country.

Arnlgot Asa
Norwegian
International Observer

Since Norway is concerned with the Philippines in the peace negotiations, we think it’s important that someone from Norway comes here to watch the present elections to give information back to Norway on what’s going on. There has been so much information in Norway also about the political killings and that there might be fraud in the elections. So we want to find out whether it’s true or not.

FrEda Guttman
Canadian
International Observer

There seems to be a general perception that there is expected to be a lot of corruption, particularly since it was done before in the 2004 elections. And so, one of the reasons I’ve come here is to help monitor and try to minimize this, and the violence. Apparently, that’s expected too, that there’ll be violence.