Nine foreign delegates of the People’s International Observers’ Mission (PIOM) arrived in Davao City Sunday to observe the final testing of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines.

The delegation will also act as a neutral observer body during the actual elections in Davao del Sur Monday.

“The upcoming national and local elections will be a critical day as it will determine the end of the nine-year Arroyo administration which has been tainted with issues of corruption, widespread violation of human rights and massive electoral fraud,” Bishop Constante Claro, convener of Pagbabago (People’s Movement for Change), told reporters in a press conference here.

PIOM, along with Pagbabago, aims to bring to the attention of the international community the situation and practice of democratic processes of the Philippine May 2010 elections.

The network of foreign observers was in the Philippines in 2007 and made a report in a book entitled “One the mission will also interview voters, candidates, and political parties; document cases of fraud, disorder, and election-related violence; document the implementation of the AES using a scorecard developed by civil society groups; and hold dialogues with election and military officials,” Claro said.