LEGAL NETWORK FOR TRUTHFUL ELECTIONS

Minutes of the Executive Council Meeting

Integrated Bar of the Philippines
National Committee on Legal Aid
Dona J. Vargas Ave., Ortigas Center, Pasig City
April 22, 2010
ATTENDANCE:
INTEGRATED BAR OF THE PHILIPPINES / Atty. Roan I. Libarios
ONE VOICE / Atty. Carlos P. Medina, Jr.
NAMFREL/ Mr. Eric Alvia
MKFI-PCID / Sen. Santanina Rasul
CBCP-NASSA /Mr. Edil Guyano
WE-WATCH/Mr. Joselito M. Natividad
PUGADLAWIN/Mr. Benjamin Tolosa
ALSO PRESENT:
Atty. Rosario T. Setias-Reyes / (IBP) LENTE Secretary
Atty. Tom Prado / IBP
Mr. Ed Nuque / LENTE
Mr. Philip Lustre
Bro. Weyms Sanchez, SJ / SLB
OTHERS:
Atty. Rona Ann V. Caritos (Ateneo-LENTE)
Atty. Sara Suguitan (Ateneo-LENTE)
Atty. April Mabanes (Ateneo-LENTE)
Ms. Michelle Avelino (PUGADLAWIN)
Ms. Eunice M. Sta. Maria (IBP-LENTE)
Mr. Dondon D. Samoy (IBP-LENTE)
I.

CALL TO ORDER

Atty. Roan Libarios of the IBP acted as the Presiding Officer. He

called the meeting to order.
II.

CERTIFICATION OF QUORUM

Atty. Rosario T. Setias-Reyes acted as Secretary of the meeting

and certified the existence of a quorum.

III.
READING AND APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES OF THE
MEETING HELD ON APRIL 14, 2010
Atty. Libarios commenced to discuss the matters taken up during
the last Council Meeting held on April 14, 2010 contained in the
minutes of the meeting, where copies of which were earlier furnished
to the members. He opened the floor for any correction or approval.
Atty. Libarios called the attention of the body on page 5, prgh. 3
of the minutes which should read as follows there were allegations of
a scenario. Atty. Medina corrected the spelling of the surname of Atty.
Suguitan.
Atty. Libarios said that there being no other correction on the
minutes, the same is adopted and approved.
IV.

MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES

Atty. Medina said that the matters were already covered by the
other items of the agenda and suggested to proceed to item 3 of the
agenda.
V.

COMELEC PREPARATIONS

Atty. Rose said that the COMELEC is yet to publish the General
Instruction on manual canvassing and counting, same is true with the
Continuity Plan and the Random Manual Audit.
Atty. Libarios reiterated the creation of a study group to tackle
the issuances. Atty. Rose informed the body that on April 26, 2010, the
study group will have a meeting and tackle the creation of the Primer
on AES which will cover the different issuances. She also said that she
invited all the lawyers who responded to the text messages of IBP
through its Public Service Portal (PSP) to attend the meeting, which will
be considered as their orientation. Atty. Libarios said that the expected
output would be the primer, which will serve as the manual for the
volunteers on Election Day.
VI.

ACCREDITATION

Atty. Libarios said that LENTE accreditation is still pending with

the COMELEC but hopefully LENTE will get its accreditation on April 26
or 27, 2010.
VII.

OPERATIONS

Mr. Ed Nuque said that LENTE have already 36 law school

chapters, 20 concluded accountability trainings and still have 17
schedule accountability trainings. He said that LENTE wants to project
to the public that there is a network of lawyers that will be ready to
accommodate all the complaints directly related to election offenses.
He informed the body that out of the 80 Dioceses, LENTE has 17
dioceses that responded to be part of the LENTE network.
Atty. Ona said that LENTE has Regional Desk Officer (RDO) per
region. They have to be present in all of the provinces, which shall be
one lawyer per province. As of today, LENTE is present in Region 1 in
45 municipalities out of 122 municipalities. She said that the target is
50 lawyers aside from the IBP lawyers. She said that the volunteers
should indicate his/her name and contact numbers.
Mr. Ed Nuque said that even though we have volunteers if he/she
did not undergone accountability training, its useless. Basically, the
expertise that we are offering is our legal competency. The important
thing is that we should identify those point persons in the
provincial/cities/municipalities. He also said that they propose to get
the report from the field units/volunteers who will be transmitted to the
Regional Desk Officer, and then it will be evaluated by the legal team
to check the veracity of the report/complaint before it is forwarded to
the news bulletin.
Mr. Ed Nuque said that they proposed two major activities for
LENTE, first is the GENERAL ASSEMBLY wherein all the coordinators
will be given full briefing, and includes the distribution of the LENTE
materials. Second is the ADVERTISEMENT. The first ad will project
LENTE as the institution, while the second ad shall contain the list of
election offenses, the legal remedies available. The last ad will contain
the list of the LENTE volunteers.
April 26, 2010
April 28, 201
May 3, 2010
May 5, 2010
May 8, 2010

Release of the first ad

Press Conference and General Assembly
(HORIZON HOTEL)
Release of the second ad
Release of the third ad
Release of the last ad

Atty. Reyes said that IBP lawyers should announce to everybody

that IBP is there as LENTE. Atty. Libarios reiterated that all IBP offices
may be converted to as LENTE offices.

Mr. Nuque said that there are still pending items before the
coming out of the ads, which are the MOA signing with the PNP and the
Prosecutors league.
Atty. Medina informed the body that LENTE had already
submitted the draft MOA with Atty. De los Reyes for comment of Gen.
Verzoza. Atty. Suguitan presented a power point on the different
posters for LENTE.
Atty. Libarios said that three days before the election, for
purposes of the deployment of the machine, LENTE should have a
deployment plan. Atty. Medina said that LENTE should identify the gaps
so that the roving teams can attend to the deployment.
Atty. Libarios said that as early as May 9, 2010, the provincial
coordinators should report on the status of the deployment of the
machine as to whether any problem is being encountered. The
provincial coordinators should have a check list/situational report.
Atty. Reyes said that the machines should be delivered to the
precincts not later than May 7, 2010. Atty. Libarios added that LENTE
should monitor the deployment of the PCOS machines. Atty. Medina
said that once LENTE identified the volunteers, they should schedule a
meeting with the member organizations within their area. Atty. Reyes
pressed on linking up with other member organizations, because you
cannot do it on your own.
Atty. Caritos said that the checking of the PCOS is PPCRVs work,
what is important is to know who are the lawyers in-charge in the
province, cities and municipalities. Atty. Reyes said that let the lawyers
decide what to do. She also said that the possible cheating would occur
between May 7, and May 10, 2010, so LENTE volunteers should be
vigilant and careful.
Atty. Libarios said that all data should be gathered like how many
PCOS machines are distributed or tested so that as of May 09, 2010,
LENTE already know how many percent of the PCOS machines had
malfunctioned.
Atty. Reyes said that it is important to know the immediate
objective of LENTE. To her, the immediate objective of LENTE is to
ensure that the result of this May 10, 2010 election is credible and
accurate. Atty. Libarios added that it has a deterrent effect if lawyers
made known their presence to the COMELEC within their area. Atty.
Medina reiterated that if LENTE volunteers are identified, they should
link up at ground level for them to organize and talk to themselves how
4

to monitor these things. He said that LENTE should ensure that at

ground level, LENTE have all the data on the initialization of the PCOS
machines.
VIII. TRAININGS
Atty. Rose informed the body that LENTE trainings had already
been conducted in Albay, Coronadal, and Cebu. She said that IBP has
still two more trainings in Tarlac and Cagayan De Oro. She asked for
time to organize and added that as to this time, she cannot give yet
the complete list of name of the lawyer volunteers. She said that per
province there are already designated lawyer and members. Atty.
Reyes added that in all areas that they are visiting, their instruction is
to get all the contact numbers of the volunteer lawyer and then
designate who is the team leader. The IBP office shall be used as the
headquarters for purposes of the operations and connection with other
member organization of LENTE. She reiterated that IBP has already
activated its Public Service Portal for purposes of communication.
The next meeting will be on April 28, 2010 at New Horizon Hotel.
Meeting Adjourned.