‘World’s eyes on PH’: After EU team, more foreign poll observers due

 

MANILA, Philippines — After a large contingent from the European Union (EU), more foreigners, including a former Australian senator, will be in the country observe next  month's midterm elections.

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) has officially launched its International Observer Mission (IOM) for the 2025 midterm elections.

“As a global human rights coalition, we are once again deploying the IOM to support  Filipinos in protecting their civil and political rights, including the right to free and honest elections,” said Patricia Lisson, ICHRP vice-chairperson, in an online press conference.

“The eyes of the world are on the Philippines,” Lisson added.

The IOM of the ICHRP will be led by a group of commissioners with long-standing records in monitoring elections.

Former Australian Sen. Lee Rhiannon is among the IOM commissioners who will observe this year’ selections.

Aside from Rhiannon, the Commission includes General Secretary Rev. Michael Blair of the United Church of Canada; Sylvain Goldstein, Asia Director for General Confederation of Labor–CGT of France; and Colleen Moore, the director of Peace With Justice at the General Board of Church and Society in the United States; and Xavier Cutillas, president of the Spanish-based Catalan Association for Peace.

2022 elections not free, honest, fair?

Rhiannon is now serving her second term as an observer in the country.

She first joined the ICHRP’s IOM, which consisted of more than 60 observers, during the 2022 elections.

“The 2022 election did not meet the standard of ‘free, honest and fair’ because prevailing conditions robbed the voters of access to reliable information, access to the voting places without intimidation, and access to credible vote counting system,”  she said in a statement.

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Erwin Garcia said Rhiannon’s observation will be part of the poll body’s “serious consideration.”

“A very sensible observation that should be a part of the serious considerations of the present Commission,” Garcia told INQUIRER.net in a text message.

“We cannot disregard these as a way of moving forward,” he added.

EU ‘long-time’ observers settled in posts

In a related development, Garcia received the delegation of the EU's election observation mission led by Chief Observer Marta Temido.

For the first time, the EU’s EOM came to the country upon the invitation of Comelec.

“We are not here to validate the results or to legitimize the process,” Temido said in a press conference at Palacio del Gobernador. "We are here to observe."

READ: EU deploying over 200 observers for 2025 PH midterm polls

The EU’s 72 long-term election observers arrived last week and are now settled in their respective deployment posts in all regions of the country, according to Deputy Chief Observer Manuel Sanchez de Nogues.

The 72 observers are divided into 36 teams, or two observers each per team, in 18 regions nationwide, Sanchez de Nogues previously said.

“They were deployed last week, and they are present in all regions of the country,” Sanchez de Nogues said in the press briefing.

According to Sanchez de Nogues, there are certain regions in the country where there are one more observer teams, but he could not yet determine the regions with several observer teams.

Meanwhile, Sanchez de Nogues said the 104 “short-time observers” will arrive in the country in May.

An initial core team of 11 analysts arrived here in Manila in March. The long-term observers deployed throughout the country will send their report to the Manila-based core team.

(2025/04/23-14:55)