Comelec accredits Lente as watchdog

CEBU, Philippines - The Commission on Elections has approved the accreditation of Legal Network for Truthful Elections of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines as one of its citizen’s arms for the May 10 elections.

The Comelec en banc granted Lente its accreditation last Friday to serve as elections watchdog along with the National Movement for Free Elections, Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan, and the Cebu-Citizens Involvement and Maturation for People’s Empowerment and Liberation.

Lente is a network of lawyers, law students, paralegals and other trained volunteers set up by various non-partisan groups engaged in election monitoring work. The group hopes to deploy around 200 volunteers in various canvassing centers nationwide on Monday.

The group earlier petitioned the Comelec to allow them access to polling places, counting and canvassing centers to serve as the legal arm of other citizens’ arm group like the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting or PPCRV.

Carlos Medina, one of the convenors of Lente, said the mechanism was first proposed to the poll body on March 10.

The mechanism holds perpetrators of electoral fraud and cheating accountable by giving concerned citizens a chance to file complaints free of political harassment from candidates who are subject of the said complaints, Medina explained.

He added that Lente has trained its legal and paralegal volunteers on securing evidence, among others.

Lente also urged the Comelec to act on anonymous complaints from concerned citizens by considering it as enough grounds to conduct investigation. (FREEMAN NEWS)