MANILA, Philippines – Tension is gripping areas where fraud is either delaying the counting or altering the results of the recent elections, prompting calls for government action and vigilance among poll watchers.
In Sultan Kudarat, government security forces cordoned off the town hall of Kalamansig and padlocked the election returns after the town election officer went missing on Wednesday.
Fr. Charlie Soliterio, of the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections – Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, told radio station dxMS the canvassing of votes in the town was delayed after the Commission on Elections failed to send a replacement for election officer Sam Sarona who left for still unknown reasons.
“Supporters of politicians and residents are getting violent,” said Soliterio.
Armed men tried to snatch the ERs yesterday but policemen got in the way.
Another arson
In Shariff Kabunsuan province, armed men tried to set fire to the municipal hall of Buldon town, where election materials were kept, at about 11 p.m. Thursday.
Col. Francis Allorin, commander of the 37th Infantry Battalion, said the fire was put out before it could spread.
Allorin said the target of the armed men were the election returns in the municipal hall.
He said some residents knew who the perpetrators were but wouldn’t talk out of fear.
In Cotabato City, gubernatorial candidate Tocao Mastura of the Nationalist People’s Coalition protested the replacement of election officers in some towns of Shariff Kabunsuan where he claimed he was winning.
“What was suspiciously questionable,” according to Mastura, is that the replacement election officer come from Maguindanao where Team Unity candidates took a 12-0 questioned victory.
Mastura said that on Wednesday, a convoy with a group of armed men fetched an election officer in Matanog. “I’m not sure why was he fetched or was he kidnapped?” Mastura said.
Mastura said he has informed ARMM Comelec chief Rey Sumalipao but “he has not issued any directive to this effect.” Sumalipao would not answer calls made to his mobile phone.
Clash in Isabela
In Santiago City, a policeman and a poll watcher were wounded yesterday when supporters of Mayor Amelita Navarro and Vice Mayor Armando Tan clashed while the canvassing of votes was ongoing at the Antonio Abaya Memorial Coliseum here.
Police said the victims suffered head injuries and were treated at a nearby clinic.
The tension eased when Chief Insp. Juan Aggasid, Santiago City mobile group commanding officer, and Lt. Col. Loreto Magundayao, 54th Infantry Battalion commander, sent 50 policemen to the area.
Twenty members of the special weapons and tactics team were also sent to the site.
Fr. John Bartolome, head of the city’s Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), said the election inspectors failed to give copies of three certificates of canvass (COCs) to their group that were allegedly held by the canvassing board.
Bartolome said his volunteers were also barred from entering the coliseum on Thursday night.
Tension started on Thursday night when three ballot boxes were found four days after they disappeared at the canvassing site.
Resignation
In Cagayan, three members of the province’s board of canvassers resigned following a feud with the lawyer of Gov. Edgar Lara and Mayor Randolph Ting who accused them of bias.
Michael Valdez, chair of the Cagayan board of canvassers, and members Amador Arao and Marieta Tumaneng said they were quitting because they “could no longer bear the insult and false accusations” hurled against them by lawyer Levito Baligod, counsel of Lara and Ting.
The canvassing of votes at the Kamaranan Hall in Tuguegarao City stopped on Thursday after Baligod shouted at the board members, saying they were biased against him.
Baligod accused the board of not acting on his request to open the ballot boxes in Tuao town for a recount due to what he called “manifest errors.”
Suspicious ballot boxes
In Romblon, three ballot boxes that arrived in the province on election day were held by watchdog groups for fear they would be used for fraud.
The municipal Comelec failed to explain what the boxes were for.
The ballot boxes came from the Comelec central office in Manila and were delivered at 11 a.m. on May 14 to San Agustin town, which was the drop-off point for all ballot boxes for the elections.
“We had a discussion with the candidates’ lawyers about the ballot boxes. There were suspicions that they would be used for ballot switching so we guarded them,” said Flores.
Two of the ballot boxes were supposedly for Calatrava and Alcantara towns in Tablas Island, while one was for San Jose in Carabao Island.
The ballot boxes are now in the custody of the Comelec.
Flores also reported that Comelec officials refused to provide Namfrel with the sixth copy of the ERs, as required by an agreement between Namfrel and Comelec.
Some watchers were prevented from entering polling precincts.
Winning bet disqualified
In Dumaguete City, reports said the Comelec disqualified winning candidate Jocelyn D. Sy-Limkaichong in Negros Oriental’s first congressional district over citizenship issues.
The Comelec second division issued a resolution on May 17 that would stop the proclamation of Limkaichong for not being a natural-born Filipino.
Limkaichong, incumbent mayor of La Libertad town, is leading against candidates Jerome Paras and Olive Paras.
The Comelec said Limkaichong was born a Chinese national because her father, Julio Ong Sy, had not yet acquired Filipino citizenship through naturalization proceedings at the time of her birth.
But Limkaichong told the Comelec that the Court of First Instance granted Sy’s petition for naturalization on Sept. 21, 1959.
She said her father took his oath of allegiance as a naturalized Filipino citizen on Oct. 21, 1959. Limkaichong was born on Nov. 9, 1959. Reports from Charlie C. Señase, Edwin O. Fernandez and Jeoffrey Maitem, Inquirer Mindanao; Villamor Visaya Jr. and Estanislao Caldez, Inquirer Northern Luzon; Marciano T. Virola, Jr., Contributor; and Alex Pal and Romy Amarado, Inquirer Visayas
