Lanao Sur expects "peaceful" polls as candidates run unopposed

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MARAWI CITY (MindaNews/28 October) -- Election officials in Lanao delSur, the so-called "vote capital" in the country, are optimisticMonday's barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections would be peacefulwith many candidates for barangay chair running "unopposed.""In 28 percent of all the barangays in the province, the candidatesfor barangay chair are running unopposed," a police report to theComelec here said.But Atty. Renault Macarambon, who claimed he was sent by ComelecActing Chair Resurreccion Borra to assist Acting Provincial ElectionSupervisor, Atty. Carlito Ravelo in supervising the elections in thisprovince, however, said: "We have yet to receive their writtenwithdrawal (from the electoral race).""That is only according to the police reports, but we are yet toverify that," Macarambon said, as he stressed that even if there arecandidates running unopposed, "the voting will still go on asscheduled because the votes of the unopposed candidates need to becounted along with those running for barangay councilors."Macarambon, in an interview at the Ayala Resort where the Comelecholds office here "for security considerations, " admitted hearingreports of mayors who were working to convince some aspirants forbarangay chair to "give way to a common candidate" so that the post ofvillage chief would no longer be contested.But Atty. Abdulaziz Mamutoc, a known election lawyer here, hasdifferent estimate of barangays where "LGU or datu-nominatedcandidates are running unopposed." He puts the estimate at 80 percent.Mamutoc said that in some barangays, "the political clans decided andagreed to rotate the chairmanship of the barangays among themselves.In other areas, they agreed to divide the term of office of thesupposed contending parties among themselves."The lawyer, whose wife was among those who filed her candidacy intheir barangay but later withdrew "to avoid trouble," said he isaware that the agreed sharing of term of office is not legal. Heexplained that the agreement stipulates that the names of barangaychairs who would serve the first half of the term "need not be changedeven if the other party to the agreement would be the one running theaffairs of the barangay and managing the Internal Revenue Allotment."Salic Ibrahim, chair of Citizen Care in the Autonomous Region inMuslim Mindanao (C-Care), a poll watch dog, and Diocesan priestTeresito Suganob, chair of the Parish Pastoral Council for ResponsibleVoting, also confirmed having received reports "that only very fewbarangays would essentially be having elections."Lanao del Sur has been known for "all sorts of irregularities duringthe conduct of elections."Ibrahim, who is also provincial coordinator of the Bantay Ceasefire,which is monitoring "election-related violence that may affect theceasefire agreement" between the government and the Moro IslamicLiberation Front, said his group "will never stop trying to makeelection here peaceful and orderly."Suganob said that "it appears that the Maranaos here are beinglabelled as cheats. But to them, this (election) is just a kind ofactivity that was taught to them by the national officials. Elections,for them, is being called by a local chief executive for a sumptousmeal. Before they go home, they are either given money, meat, rice, orall of the three."The priest, who spent most of his 20 years of priesthood here, saidthat the "activity" has persisted because "the people know that thenational officials, who taught them what election is also pay millionsto buy votes here.""Besides, that has been proven here already. If you give money, youwill surely win," he said in emphasizing that most of the people herecould not even appreciate election as an essential requirement ofdemocracy.In the towns of Kalanugas and Malabang, for instance, Macarambonreceived reports that only two and four barangays, respectively, wouldbe contested by more than one candidates for the barangaychairmanship. (MindaNews)