Democracy lives in Zamboanga–Padaca

Election Commissioner Grace Padaca: Democracy survived the Zamboanga siege. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—“Democracy survived the siege. It lives on in Zamboanga City.”

This was Election Commissioner Grace Padaca’s text message to the Inquirer on Tuesday as she reported that the voters’ turnout during Monday’s special barangay (village) elections in the southwestern Mindanao city was “high” and its conduct generally peaceful.

“We could have understood if there was a low turnout of voters in the barangays that experienced the siege. But the turnout was still high,” said Padaca, who went to Zamboanga together with Commission on Elections chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. and Commissioner Al  Parreño to supervise the polls.

Parreño said around 60 percent of the voters took part in the electoral process.”

The polls in Zamboanga were “generally good, peaceful and orderly,” he added.

Brillantes made the same observations after he personally witnessed the influx of voters during the early hours of the polls.

Voting in all polling places in the city started on time and election personnel were also able to set up voting places for residents displaced by the recent siege, the poll officials said.

While Brillantes, Padaca and Parreño were in Zamboanga, Commissioners Lucenito Tagle and Elias Yusoph were in the island-province of Bohol, which also held special village polls.

The regular barangay elections on Oct. 28 were postponed in Zamboanga City following three weeks of gun battles between government forces and renegade members of the secessionist Moro National Liberation Front in September, followed by massive flooding.

The polls in Bohol were reset after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake wrought great damage in the province on Oct. 16.

There are 799,089 registered voters in Bohol and 412,661 in Zamboanga City, according to the Comelec.

In an e-mail, Padaca said there were 1,488 candidates for barangay chair and 10,929 for barangay councilor in the Central Visayas province.

In Zamboanga City, she said there were 291 candidates for barangay chair and 2,639 for barangay councilor.