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Former Comelec and NAMFREL Chairman Christian Monsod's election contribution
recognized through 2012 Baxter Award
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The National Citizens Movement for Free
Elections (NAMFREL) proudly congratulates Mr. Christian Monsod for
being the recipient of this year's Joe C. Baxter Award from the
International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES).
Joe Baxter was a long-time IFES employee who started his career in
election administration in Louisiana, and then in Washington D.C.
During his tenure in D.C., he was instrumental in transforming the
election administration system from being poorly managed to a model
system. Later on when he joined IFES, he was hailed as an advocate
of free and fair elections and of citizens participation in election
monitoring through his work with the organization, mainly in Africa,
where he helped set up election commissions, draft election laws,
and launch training programs for voter education and poll worker
training.
The choice of Mr. Monsod as this year's recipient of the award named
after Mr. Baxter could not be more appropriate. Mr. Monsod was
chaiman of the Philippine Commission on Elections from 1991-1995.
Under his tenure, the Comelec began its efforts to modernize
Philippine elections through Operation MODEX (Modernization and
Excellence), the components of which included the computerization of
voters lists, as well as other initiatives to make the Philippine
electoral system more transparent, efficient, and inclusive. At
present, in its effort to modernize the election system and to make
it more fair and inclusive, the Comelec is still trying to fulfill
what the Monsod Commission envisioned and started almost 20 years
ago.
Mr. Monsod's involvement in Philippine elections started in the
early 1980s, as a founding member of NAMFREL. In the lead up to the
historic 1986 elections, Christian and his wife Winnie (including
their children) were instrumental in mobilizing volunteers, which,
in 1986, totaled more than half a million. After a stint as the
organization's secretary general, Mr. Monsod was national chairman
of NAMFREL in 1987. Mr. Monsod is a believer in ordinary people
being capable of extraordinary feats. "There were 250,000 of them in
1984, 500,000 in 1986, and 300,000 in 1987," Mr. Monsod wrote in
1988 in a Foreword to a book about NAMFREL, "each one a hero in his
own right, driven by the same dream of peaceful change that many
said was hopeless. Embattled and belittled, he persevered despite
the odds and showed the world how heroic ordinary people can be."
At present, Mr. Monsod continues what he started in NAMFREL and the
Comelec through the Legal Network for Free Elections (LENTE) and the
Bishops-Businessmen's Conference (BBC) in believing that change is
necessary and possible, and in recognizing and harnessing the power
of ordinary citizens to effect change.
Congratulations Mr. Christian Monsod. |
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