MEMORANDUM ASPAP and IFES Held 10th Campaign Finance Monitoring Forum at the University of Sto.Tomas
Schools of Public Administration in the Philippines (ASPAP) was held last 18 September 2009 at the Thomas Aquinas Center Auditorium, University of Sto. Tomas (UST). With the Department of Political Science as the university’s lead unit, the forum had COMELEC Chairman Jose Melo, represented by newly appointed COMELEC Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal, as main speaker. The panel of reactors and audience were faculty and students of UST and other ASPAP-NCR Schools such as the University of the East, Centro Escolar University and Jose Rizal University.
With funding support from the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES-Philippines) and under collaborative partnership with the Pera’t Pulitika Consortium, ASPAP Inc. expects these fora hosted by it member-schools all over the country to be the venue to raise public awareness, discourse, advocacy and action for campaign finance monitoring by all critical stakeholders of electoral reforms in the pursuit good governance – the state, business, civil society, academe, youth, the media and all other equally important elements who have direct and indirect stakes in the upcoming 2010 Elections.
Officially launched during the first forum held on March 19, 2009 at the University of the Philippines’ National College of Public Administration and Governance (UP-NPCAG), the following were the subsequent fora successfully hosted by selected ASPAP-member schools in strategic positions all over the country.
| 26 June | Ateneo de Davao University, Davao City |
| 10 July | Cebu Normal University, Cebu City |
| 17 July | Western Visayas State University, Iloilo City |
| 24 July | Western Mindanao State University, Zamboanga City |
| 4 August | Siliman University, Dumaguete City |
| 21 August | Ateneo de Naga University, Naga City |
| 28 August | University of the Philippines, Baguio City |
| 11 September | Holy Angel University, Angeles, Pampanga |
These fora featured Pera’t Pulitika Consortium’s experts, scholars and advocates of electoral reforms such as Ms. Malou Mangahas (PCIJ), Mr. Ramon Casiple (IPER), Atty. Luie Tito F. Guia (LIBERTAS), Dr. Amado Mendoza (UP/ASPAP), Dr. Alex Brillantes (UP/ASPAP) as well as Atty. Fernando Rafanan, Head of the Legal Office of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC). Faculty/scholars of the ASPAP Schools and the local COMELEC officials also participate as panel of reactors and/or resource persons.
To drumbeat support for monitoring campaign finance spending for the 2010 Elections, the series also launched a volunteer signature campaign intended to generate a nationwide list of committed and informed “campaign-finance-monitoring volunteers” who will be trained and mobilized in the 2010 Elections.
This project of ASPAP Inc. and IFES-Philippines will be followed by more collaborative activities between them and their institutional partners under the Pera’t Pulitika Consortium – all towards concrete electoral reforms, anti-corruption and good governance.