Local Boss Is President’s Man : No Worry for Marcos in One City

Here in the political fiefdom of rightist Ramon Durano, Friday’s presidential voting ran true to form: No opposition ballot inspectors or volunteer watchdogs were present in the polling places.

President Ferdinand E. Marcos was guaranteed a near sweep of Danao’s 60,000 voters. Meanwhile, confusion over voter lists was expected to diminish the majority of his opponent, Corazon Aquino, in the provincial capital of Cebu City, 20 miles to the south.

No major violence occurred in vote-rich Cebu province, but reports of intimidation and vote fraud mounted during the night.

“In Danao, all we wanted was a fair shake,” said Jose Marques, provincial director of the National Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL). “We didn’t get it.”

Strictures Help Boss

Two residency requirements gave Durano what he wanted in his home city:

--Poll watchers for the citizens’ movement in the city had to be resident voters, according to a ruling Wednesday by the government’s Commission on Elections. “We tried to form a chapter there. We have them everywhere else in the province,” Marques said. “But the convent where the organizational meeting was held was stoned. Later the rectory was stoned.”

No chapter was formed.

--Another Election Commission ruling required opposition ballot inspectors to be residents of the city in which they served. “Our coordinators could not get anybody willing to take the risk,” said Hilario Davide Jr., a legal counsel for the opposition UNIDO party. “They were afraid they would be exposed to reprisal or economic blackmail.”

Seven of every 10 citizens of Danao owe their livelihood directly or indirectly to companies owned by Durano, a close ally of Marcos.

The national citizens’ movement decided to operate in Danao despite the restrictions.

“We were going to go up in a 40-car caravan with about 380 volunteers,” said Domingo Juan, an official of the movement. “But the military told us such a large group would arouse public curiosity and make the soldiers nervous.”

So Juan took his volunteers up in small groups, getting through a military checkpoint with no trouble but running into a stone wall at the office of municipal registrar Roque M. Loro.

30 Meters From Polls

Loro stalled the movement’s team leader--and visiting California Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands)--insisting that the poll watchers could go no closer than 30 meters from the polls. Juan radioed Mario Ortiz, the provincial Election Commission chairman, who gave approval for the volunteers to post themselves just outside the polling place doorways.

At the sites, however, municipal officials and other men drew the line at 30 meters. Some volunteers were shoved; a camera was confiscated.

Shortly after 10 a.m., with five hours of polling remaining, Juan threw in the towel.

“I decided it was a complete mockery,” he said. “There was no way to control that election, so why not pull out?”

Juan and his volunteers returned to Cebu City, and lawyers for the citizens’ movement were considering a protest to seek nullification of the Danao vote.

In Cebu City, the second largest city in the Philippines, there was enthusiasm and trouble from the start.

At the Lahug School, the cars of early voters were double-parked as the polls opened. The turnout was reported large across the province.

Manuel Prospero, an official of the citizens’ movement, stood on the school steps noting complaints as the first votes were cast.

Ink, Incomplete Lists

A woman said the ink swabbed on her finger to prevent repeat voting was not indelible as advertised (but another voter said that he could not remove it with either soap or solvent). Several voters said that their names were not on the registration lists, a problem that grew throughout the day.

“The unpreparedness of (the Election Commission) in Cebu City has been deplorable,” the movement’s Marques said at midday. “Incidents of missing voters’ lists, broken ballot box covers, no ballots at the precincts, delay in opening voting centers and other incidents have effectively disenfranchised thousands of voters in Cebu City.”

In the nearby city of Lapu-Lapu, a supervisor of the citizens’ movement, Tony Ycong, said that 2% to 5% of the voters at one polling center could not find their names on the lists. As the voting closed, election boards at the Lapu-Lapu center began their tallies as onlookers peered through the slatted windows of the schoolroom polling places. With party and volunteer observers looking over shoulders, a teacher read out the ballots.

But at another Lapu-Lapu school, according to an affidavit of complaint filed with the citizens’ movement Friday night, the teacher faced the observers so they could not see for themselves how the ballots were marked.