We, the founding leaders of Kaya Natin! A National Movement for Good Governance and Ethical Leadership, fully support the Commission on Elections’ program for the full automation of the 2010 elections. We believe that the Filipinos’ right to elect our leaders is one of the main pillars of our democracy, thus we stand firm on our belief that this issue of fully automating the upcoming elections is very critical to our country’s future.

Given the history of widespread cheating in our country’s past elections, we believe that by fully automating the upcoming electoral exercise, election cheating and fraud can be minimized, thus ensuring that the true mandate of the people will be served. Aside from this, the full automation of the elections will help minimize human error and at the same time allow for the Filipino people to know the results of the elections within a lesser period of time.

As local government leaders, we have seen the importance of electing effective and ethical leaders through fair and honest elections. The full automation of the elections will help level the playing field, especially for morally upright and good intentioned candidates who may not have enough financial resources to hire poll watchers to guard their votes. By electing good leaders, the Filipino people can expect good governance leading to more efficient delivery of basic services.

We call on our lawmakers to work for transparent, clean and honest elections by immediately passing the necessary supplemental budget for the full automation of the upcoming elections.

We call on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to appeal to her allies in Congress to pass the budget necessary for the full automation of the upcoming elections.

Finally, we call on all Filipinos to join us in exerting pressure on our government leaders, especially on our congressmen and senators, for the immediate approval of the supplemental budget that will assure us of a fully automated election in 2010.

JESSE ROBREDO, mayor, Naga City; GRACE PADACA, governor, Isabela; EDDIE PANLILIO, governor, Pampanga; SONIA LORENZO, mayor, San Isidro, Nueva Ecija; Teodoro Baguilat, governor, Ifugao