The Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE) is AGENDA’s latest partner from the Philippines. This organization is the first and only non-partisan, nationwide network of lawyers, law students, paralegals and trained volunteers engaged in election work in the Philippines.
LENTE strives to ensure truthful elections and meaningful electoral participation for the good of the Filipino people. It envisions a genuine, democratic society with an informed, empowered and engaged citizenry.
The organization has several stated objectives. One is to conduct public education activities on the Philippine electoral system. Another is to lobby and advocate for electoral reform that ensures the credibility of the electoral process and restores citizens’ trust in the Philippine democracy. LENTE also pursues criminal and administrative cases against violators of election laws and strengthens institutional ties among citizen arms and other organizations for networking, collaboration and coordination on projects. Lastly, LENTE monitors the conduct of elections.
To achieve these objectives, LENTE has forged partnerships with organizations from cross-cutting sectors. Among current partners are the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippine-National Secretariat for Social Action and the National Movement for Free Elections.
LENTE was involved in monitoring previous elections from 2007 to 2013. In 2007, the organization deployed more than 6,000 volunteers to monitor municipal, city, provincial and national canvassing stages, and provided legal assistance to other election monitoring organizations. In 2008, LENTE volunteers monitored all stages of the electoral process in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. In 2010, LENTE organized a mission to monitor the national and local elections.
LENTE joined AGENDA in 2013 to monitor the accessibility of the legislative election.