Vice President Noli de Castro assured that he will not allow any term extension after the May 2010 elections, expressing confidence that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will not extend her term beyond June 30.

“After my term on June 30, I will say goodbye [to my vice presidency] and give a chance to the new vice president,” De Castro said.

“Hindi ako sasabak kung gagawin ninyo yan at maraming kababayan ang ‘di papayag na gawin yan ng Pangulo. Alam kong ‘di rin niya gagawin yan,” he said. [“I will not join any plans for term extension and many Filipinos will also not allow the President for any term extension. I am sure the President will not do that.”]

“I will not join any plans that are against the Constitution,” De Castro assured.

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal also assured that the Comelec will not join any plans of government officials for term extension after the elections.

“We are an independent constitutional body. We don’t meddle and the President also does not interfere with our work. We do our job to ensure credible elections,” Larrazabal said.

“We will not allow failure of elections and the public will not allow it to happen. This is our elections. It is not the elections of the Comelec. The elections are bigger than the administration and even all [political] parties combined,” he added.

The country will be having its first automated national elections this May. It is already being piloted in Hong Kong and Singapore for the overseas absentee voting (OAV) due to the high concentration of Filipinos registered for the OAV.

“We’ll have one of the advanced election systems in the world,” Larrazabal said. “Like in the US, voting is done by county. In the Philippines, we’re canvassing all 50 million votes at one given time. We have several positions [for election], it’s synchronized.”

“We have several observer missions: US, Russia, United Kingdom,” he added. There will also be Embassies that will be sending its Embassy personnel to observe the conduct of elections such as Japanese Embassy and the European Union.

The Comelec commissioner, meanwhile, assured that though only 64 or 65 percent of the election areas have cellular phone coverage, they will be using satellite transmission in areas without cellphone coverage.

“There is an agreement with Smartmatic and telecommunication companies that those transmissions will be given priority,” he said.

It was recalled that in March, Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Jesus Verzosa had given an assurance that he will not support any illegal actions or decisions in the government, particularly activities related to the upcoming national elections.

Verzosa is set to retire in December this year.