PRIVATE ARMY | Abra has gained notoriety in the past due to poll-related violence that involved armed goons hired by feuding politicians, such as these men in this photo taken in 2008. Fears that
private armies are back in Abra surfaced after last Monday’s clash between policemen and five armed men in Bucay town. (File photo by EV ESPIRITU / Inquirer Northern Luzon)
BAGUIO CITY, Benguet, Philippines — Fearing for their safety, at least 13 public school teachers in Bucay town, Abra province, have backed out of serving in the coming Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections on Oct. 30 amid the heightened tension in the locality, an official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said on Tuesday.
In an interview, lawyer Mae Richelle Belmes, Abra provincial election supervisor, said the teachers were supposed to serve as members of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) but had reported that they experienced harassment and intimidation by unidentified armed men in the past weeks.
“They (teachers) revealed that these armed men had visited their houses and threatened them,” Belmes said, but she did not elaborate.
She said more teachers were expected to back out of their election duties following an encounter between some Bucay policemen and an armed group at Sitio Nagsangalan in Barangay Layugan shortly after midnight on Monday.
According to Belmes, her office received reports that the men were carrying high-powered firearms and were seen roaming around Bucay, prompting the local police to patrol key areas in the municipality.
An initial investigation showed that personnel from the Bucay Municipal Police Station and the 2nd Police Mobile Force Company of the Philippine National Police chanced upon the armed men, which led to a gun battle.
One of the armed men, who was identified as Romnick Balmaceda, was wounded in the firefight. He was rushed to the Assumpta Family Hospital, where he died while undergoing treatment.
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Augmentation
To augment the shortage of BEIs, Belmes said policemen would be deployed to replace the teachers who withdrew from their poll duties.
She said Comelec Abra has 72 trained policemen to serve as members of the electoral boards, and 31 of them have already been deployed to other Abra towns.
“We will be reserving the remaining 41 PNP personnel for Bucay, given the current situation in the area,” Belmes added.
She said 14 of the 31 policemen would be deployed to Pilar town following the town’s request, noting that the municipality was placed under Comelec control in the last elections.
Eight other police personnel would be deployed to the capital town of Bangued, where some teachers also backed out of their election duties due to fear for their lives, Belmes said.
“Six more police personnel will be deployed to Lagangilang town due to intense rivalry. Three others will be deployed in Lagayan,” she noted.
Bets withdraw
Belmes also confirmed that some 122 candidates for barangay captain and councilors have withdrawn their candidacies, also due to the lingering poll-related tension in their areas.
“[Abra] is classified as a yellow [zone], but with the Bucay incident and other reported incidents, I already talked to the PNP provincial director to reassess our situation,” she said.
“For years, Abra was known for election-related violence that involved assassinations and sporadic gun battles, often attributed to clashing private armies.
In 2005, the entire Abra police force was replaced after an Inquirer report revealed that uniformed personnel had been moonlighting as private security for political families.
A government fact-finding team eventually validated the Inquirer exposé.
But months before the 2022 national elections, the Cordillera police reported that Abra armed groups had already been “disbanded,” citing that the last two preceding elections in the province were already peaceful. INQ