Negros Oriental placed under Comelec control

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has decided to place Negros Oriental under its control to ensure a peaceful conduct of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections in the province in October.

At a news conference on Monday, Comelec Chair George Garcia said all seven commissioners of the poll body decided to place the province under Comelec’s control during the election period to put to rest speculations that the elections could not be safely conducted in Negros Oriental in the wake of the murder of its governor and other recent violent incidents in the province.

Questions about whether to postpone the barangay and SK elections in Negros Oriental were considered after Gov. Roel Degamo and nine others were killed while 17 others were wounded when a group of heavily armed men stormed inside the governor’s property in Pamplona town last March 4.

Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr., who was subsequently expelled from the House of Representatives, was charged in court for the mass murder along with 15 others. Teves, who had gone into hiding, is now the subject of an arrest warrant issued by a Manila Regional Trial Court.

After other incidents of political violence in the province surfaced during the Senate investigation last April, the Comelec held public consultations in the province last June to determine whether to postpone the barangay and SK elections.

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What the people wanted

Garcia, however, said that the Comelec “decided to go ahead [with the elections in Negros Oriental] because the public hearings showed that the people overwhelmingly wanted to have the elections on Oct. 30.”

Military and police authorities in the province who attended the public hearings were also in favor of holding the elections, he added.

Garcia said they will later issue the guidelines on how the Comelec will enforce its authority in Negros Oriental, which consists of six cities, 19 municipalities, and 557 barangays.

By placing an area under its control, the Comelec will have direct supervision over government entities in the area and has full control over all its law enforcement agencies during the election period.

For this barangay and SK elections, the election period started on Aug. 28, at the start of the filing of certificates of candidacy, and would end on Nov. 29, the last day of the filing of statements of contributions and expenditures.