In response to an invitation issued by the president of the Republic of the Philippines, IFES and its CEPPS partners deployed a team of representatives in early March to the Philippines to assess the political situation leading up to the May 10 presidential and legislative elections. Funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the assessment aimed to determine how the respective organizations could contribute to the 10 May elections. Subsequently, IFES agreed to participate in another joint CEPPS mission to implement the assessment’s short-term recommendations and a program description was submitted. The goals of the project were: · To observe the pre-election, election, and post-election periods and provide technical suggestions to COMELEC and other key players. · To host or participate in a post-election roundtable and briefings with CEPPS partners to evaluate the elections and make recommendations for longer-term election strengthening. · To support the U.S. Embassy and its observation training event. · To provide support to CEPPS partners’ regarding media monitoring work.