Sulu bet says video shows brazen cheating

ZAMBOANGA CITY—A candidate for Sulu governor has filed an electoral sabotage case against the winner of the gubernatorial race claiming that video footage and other pieces of evidence show the brazenness with which fraud was committed during the May 9 elections in the province.

Temojen “Cocoy” Tulawie, who lost to Abdusakur “Totoh” Tan II, son of Sulu patriarch Abdusakur Tan, said massive cheating and vote-buying were documented in Timpook and Taong in Talipao; Taglibi in Patikul and Alat in Jolo town.

But the elder Tan said Tulawie’s accusation was just a form of “sour graping.”

“I guess it is the same for other losers,” said the elder Tan. “They readily say they were cheated.”

“The problem with Cocoy is he talks too much because he wants public attention,” the elder Tan said.

“Let him bring his case to court and we will face him there,” he said.

Tulawie said his camp filed the electoral sabotage case at the Commission on Elections on May 12.

He said his supporters were able to obtain video footage that showed Tan’s daughter, Shiela Tan Hayudini, and her husband, Ging Hayudini, storming several precincts and ordering voters to leave the room.

“They then started shading the ballots,” said Tulawie, describing the content of the video.

The Hayudini couple, Tulawie said, gained access to polling precincts with police and military escorts.

Another footage, Tulawie said, showed a suspected Tan supporter walking to and from a voter’s chair to the vote-counting machine without the board of election inspectors (BEI) doing anything.

Tulawie said volunteers who helped in his campaign got money from Tan’s camp. They kept the money and handed it over to the police as evidence. He said the volunteers collected about P100,000 in cash from the Tan camp.

Tulawie also alleged majority of teachers, who served as members of the BEI, were in collusion with the Tans.

These BEI members, he said, demanded P20,000 from every candidate “and I was informed that Tan paid.”

Tulawie said Udtog Tago, Sulu election supervisor, should also be made to explain why the younger Tan was proclaimed governor when the number of votes canvassed had not yet reached 90 percent.

He said failure of elections in some areas in the province also helped the younger Tan win.

Giocelito Jayma, a lawyer for Tulawie, said he contested the proclamation of the younger Tan by filing a petition on May 13. A case seeking to disqualify the younger Tan for electoral sabotage has also been filed.

Tago said he was ready to answer the accusations in court.

“We will answer his allegations. His accusations against political candidates will be answered by those involved,” said Tago. Julie Alipala and Dennis Santos, Inquirer Mindanao