ROXAS: CIVIL SOCIETY TO GIVE FINAL VERDICT OVER ELECTIONS
PAYS TRIBUTE TO PEOPLE DEDICATED TO PROTECTING POLL INTEGRITY

In the final stretch of the 2007 National Elections, Senator Mar Roxas called on all citizens to maintain and intensify their vigilance to ensure that each and every vote is counted properly.

All of us are interested in seeing our votes properly counted and canvassed, and our true will proclaimed, he said.

Lets us stay vigilant. Let us not allow those who are desperate to be in power to tamper with the polls results to their favor and get away with it, he added.

Roxas said given the prevailing low trust in government and its institutions, civil society groups and other sectors such as academe, the business community, non-government organizations, and the media, must come together to render a true, honest and realistic verdict on the May 14 polls.

It is the peoples votes which determine those who will be elected. It is the peoplenot the governmentwho must therefore give a final, credible judgment on the results of the polls, he said.

In a recent survey by Pulse Asia, while more people trust the Commission on Elections (Comelec)32% versus 28% who distrust the bodya whopping 40% are still undecided as to whether they should entrust their votes to Comelec.

Roxas commended the people and the groups who have been toiling since May 14 to safeguard ballots, to ensure that no votes are miscounted and no hanky-panky would jeopardize the peoples sacred right of suffrage.

He congratulated the teachers, the volunteers of the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), the Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE), the Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan (SLB), Volunteers for Clean Elections (VFORCE), and other groups from diverse sectors like the youth, professionals, workers, the academe, the clergy, and the media.

I salute all of you who have been working hard to protect the integrity of our elections. Your sacrifice, risking life and limb day in and day out, is very much admired, he said.

He also expressed deep regard for all the student-volunteers from the computer universities AMA and STI which are helping media organizations in their quick counts.

These students ought to be commended for helping safeguard our votes. Many of them have yet to vote due to age, but they have already devoted much time and energy to this electoral exercise, Roxas said.

Roxas likewise thanked the local and foreign media and the visiting foreign observers such as the Peoples International Observers Mission for helping bolster public vigilance.

Despite the harassments, media groups and foreign observers were not dissuaded from exposing the dirt and massive cheating which are casting a dark shadow on the credibility of the elections, Roxas asserted.