Comelec to hold barangay elections in 29 Mindanao villages on Wednesday

KIDAPAWAN CITY, North Cotabato—The Commission on Elections has tentatively scheduled special elections in 29 villages in the provinces of North Cotabato, Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur on Wednesday and has tapped policemen and soldiers as election tellers in lieu of teachers to ensure security.

The election body had to reset the barangay (village) elections in some parts of Mindanao due to security threats. The affected places include 13 villages of the municipality of Pikit in  North Cotabato; 12 villages in the municipalities of Barira, Buldon and Parang in Maguindanao; and four villages in the municipalities of Kapatagan and Marogong in Lanao del Sur.

The barangay elections were held elsewhere in the country last Monday with some exceptions.

In Pikit for example, voting was suspended in at least 13 villages after teachers who were to man the polling places in these villages failed to show up on Monday for fear of their safety.

Brig. Gen. Ademar Tomaro, the Philippine Army’s provincial commander, said the teachers’ fears were misplaced because the places where they were supposed to render election duty had  been “sanitized of lawless elements and private armed groups” days before Monday’s elections.

Joel Celis, Pikit’s election officer, said at least 150 policemen will administer the voting in the 13 villages on Wednesday.

“We are ready,” he said, adding that the policemen had been given the proper orientation on what to do.

In Maguindanao, election supervisor Udtog Tago said election documents, including ballots, would be delivered to the 12 villages by late Tuesday or early Wednesday.

Maj. Gen. Romeo Gapuz, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division based in Maguindanao, said teachers will serve as election officers in the four affected barangays in Lanao del Sur but they will be assisted  by soldiers.

Gapuz said Monday’s elections elsewhere in the provinces of North Cotabato, Maguindanao and parts of Lanao del Sur, were generally peaceful although some violence was reported in a few places.

The bloodiest incident occurred the town of Rajah Buayan town, where a supported of a candidate was killed and another person wounded in an ambush on Monday.

A rifle grenade also exploded outside a voting center in Barangay Kalanganan in Cotabato City. Nobody was injured but voting was suspended briefly.

In Kabacan, North Cotabato, the authorities downplayed Monday’s killing of P03 Earland Rojo, who was part of the security team deployed at the Kabacan Pilot Central Elementary School in the town center, saying it was not election-related.

Chief Insp. Jordane Maribojo, Kabacan police chief, said the police were inclined to believe that Rojo’s involvement in an anti-narcotics group  was the most likely motive. He said the two men on a motorcycle could have been hired gunmen working for drug traders.