Comelec to implement reforms through 5-year program

Manila, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday said it will strive to modernize, reform and redeem the integrity of the agency through a five-year program.

Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes said the program, the Comelec Strategic Plan 2011-2016 or Comstrat, is anchored on the guiding principles of independence, integrity, accountability, transparency, impartiality, professionalism, efficiency, service orientation and rule of law.

“Comstrat is the summary of the five programs that we will be doing at the Comelec. It will start this year up to 2016. Most of us (commissioners) will not see the end of this program because we shall be retired by then,” he said.

“But Comstrat had been ratified by the Comelec en banc so it will have to be implemented in the next five years.”

Comstrat is a product of a series of discussions among top Comelec officials, directors, regional directors, election supervisors and election officers across the country over the past months.

Brillantes added they intend to make Comelec an “independent, empowered and fully modernized institution conducting transparent electoral processes with credible results in strong partnership with election stakeholders.”

Each of the seven Comelec commissioners had been assigned specific “pillars” to handle to ensure the effective implementation of the program.

According to Commissioner Elias Yusoph who was assigned the voters’ education and legal policy and framework, there is a need to harmonize “all election laws, rules and regulations through the passage of a new Omnibus Election Code.”

Yusoph said the code should be updated to make it “responsive” to the automation of the country’s electoral processes.

“If we have to enact a new Omnibus Election Code, we have to include everything that every time the election comes, we don’t need to issue a series of resolutions because it can be found in the code,” he said.

Passed in December 1985, the code is primarily anchored on the manual conduct of elections and is no longer responsive to the holding of automated polls under Republic Act 9389 approved in 2007.

When it comes to voters’ education, Yusoph said that those qualified to vote should be encouraged to do so.

“We have to educate our voters that it is their duty and obligation to exercise their right of suffrage because they are part of the society. In the past, people were not willing to vote. They don’t participate in elections because of the ineffective voters’ education (campaign),” he said. –Sheila Crisostomo (The Philippine Star)