MANILA, Philippines – Former defense secretary Avelino "Nonong" Cruz, Jr. has a new job: defending Noynoy's votes.
Cruz has been tapped to head the legal team that would help protect the votes of Liberal Party standard bearer Senator Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, Aquino campaign manager Butch Abad said in an interview.
He would also oversee the training of 500,000 volunteers that the Liberal Party has been working to mobilize on election day, said Abad.
"Right now, Nonong Cruz is heading our vote protection team, our army of lawyers who will also train our volunteers," Abad said.
"Our target is to have half a million volunteers so that by election day, we can cover almost all of the precincts, starting with the most fraud-ridden provinces," he added.
Cruz was once one of President Macapagal-Arroyo's trusted advisers but he left the Cabinet after differences over administration moves to overhaul the Constitution and over an alleged aborted plan of Ms. Arroyo to declare martial law in 2005. In July 2009, he urged soldiers to "defy illegal orders" that would allow the present administration to perpetuate itself in power beyond what the Constitution allows.
Cruz was a founding partner of "the Firm," or the law offices of Villaraza and Angangco, which was once the private legal counsel of Arroyo and was considered as the most influential in the country. Another founding partner now sits on the Supreme Court: Justice Antonio Carpio.
Asked if the firm was supporting Aquino, campaign spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said: "As far as I know, Nonong Cruz is for Noynoy. I don't know about the other partners of The Firm. (Cruz) was with (Senator) Mar (Roxas) even before so it was a natural consequence that he went for Noynoy after Mar stepped aside."
Lacierda said that Cruz's team has been training election watchers and volunteer lawyers about the intricacies of the new election technology and on how to spot cheating and prevent it from succeeding.
"They appraise us about the automation law and the possible scenarios that could happen. We have a lot of volunteer lawyers joining all over the country. They joined because they also believe in Noynoy and are tired of the corruption. They're not paid," Lacierda said.
Abad said the election watchers would have to watch how the automated counting machines would be used at the precincts for pre-testing seven days before the elections.
"After the pre-testing, they will still have to be present until election day. Their watch should be non-stop. They have to be there 24/7," Abad said, adding that they plan to deploy three volunteers a day who will have eight hours shifts to guard the automated machines.
Come election day, the Aquino campaign would deploy at least two election watchers in all of the country's 75,000 precincts that would each have an estimated 1,000 voters, Abad said.
Outside the precincts, the campaign would field three to four watchers to help ensure Aquino supporters find their voting precincts and cast their votes, he said.
"The volunteers will help the voters find their names on the voters' list and make sure that they'll know what to do next," Abad added.
With Aquino's numbers averaging at a high of 40 plus percent in the surveys during the last four months, Abad said that the son of the revered late President Corazon Aquino could get at least 400 votes in each precinct.
"So each of the four watchers would have to help around 100 voters. We really have to build up our watchers," Abad said.
Another task for the volunteers would be to identify potential Aquino voters in their communities.
Abad said that the efforts to muster half a million volunteers for Aquino was being handled by civil society groups and NGOs and formed part of a two-pronged approach by the Aquino camp to build up its candidate's political machinery.
The other half is the effort of the Liberal Party (LP) to recruit new members from the ranks of country's influential politicians. Abad said more new recruits were coming in.
"They also see the (poll) numbers so they know, even in their own backyard, who is the leading candidate so they are lining up," Abad said.
He said the LP has been able to get the support of the Osmeñas of Cebu and even Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.
On the financial front, Abad said donors have expressed interest in helping Aquino’s campaign due to the high public support he received after Corazon Aquino’s death in August.
"We are generating a lot of interest from donors...like in Cebu, we have a group who told us we don't have to worry about anything. They'll take care of the sorties, the vehicles, the logistics," he said.
And while Senator Manuel Villar—who is in second place in the surveys—said that he was closing the gap between him and Aquino, Abad said that he was confident that Aquino's lead would grow further, especially after the launching of Aquino’s own TV and radio ads.
