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Koronadal
City—The
Commission on Elections (Comelec) found the copies of
municipal certificates of canvass in Maguindanao to be
authentic.
Comelec
chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. and commissioners Rene
Sarmiento and Nicodemo Ferrer met Wednesday with the
province’s 22 election officers and their provincial
supervisor, Lintang Bedol, at East Asia Royal Hotel in
General Santos City, instead in Shariff Aguak, the
capital town of
Maguindanao.
“It
looks authentic in the first impression. But we still
have to refer such findings to the Comelec en banc that
will decide whether we should canvass [votes from
Maguindanao] or not,” Comelec spokesman James Jimenez,
who was also in General Santos City, told reporters.
The
Comelec officials’ went to
Mindanao to observe the special elections in several areas in the Autonomous
Region in Muslim Mindanao as well as to determine if
elections were really held in Maguindanao on May 14.
“Maguindanao election officials brought other documents
like the copies of posting. That’s another thing that we
have to take into consideration. But the documents
themselves look authentic. The final say will be on the
commission en banc,” he added.
Jimenez,
however, pointed out that the Comelec officials’ trip to
Mindanao was only part of a fact-finding mission.
“There’s
no declaration whether there was or no elections in
Maguindanao. Our trip is only a fact-finding mission.”
On
Monday, Genuine Opposition senatorial candidate Aquilino
“Koko” Pimentel III filed a petition for prohibition
before the Supreme Court to stop the Wednesday’s
scheduled trip of three election officials to
Maguindanao, who will check the authenticity of poll
documents in the province.
“This is
just a fact-finding mission as I said. So there will be
no problems with it. No legal impediment. That’s not I
think questionable by anyone,” Jimenez added.
Bayan
Muna urged here today the arrest of Bedol and the
issuance of witness protection for the teachers who will
testify against the local politicians allegedly involved
in electoral fraud in Maguindanao.
Bayan
Muna also slammed Abalos’s rejection to the clamor
against the reconsideration of the controversial
election documents from Maguindanao.
In
another development, at least 414 policemen served as
members of the board of election inspectors (BEI) in
special elections in several towns in four provinces of
the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Wednesday,
Chief Supt. Joel Goltiao, regional police commander,
said.
Goltiao
told reporters that in Barira, Shariff Kabunsuan, the
former main lair of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)
developed by government into a peace zone, 171 policemen
served as members of BEI.
He said
about 177 cops were also working in various BEIs in the
towns of Marantao, Taraka, Tubaran, Lumbaca-Unayan,
Pagayawa, and Tamparan, and Marawi City, in Lanao del
Sur; 36 in Akbar and Sumisip in Basilan; and 30 in
Kabuntalan, also in Shariff Kabunsuan.
“It’s
generally peaceful. That’s because we deployed adequate
forces from the police and the military. Also, we are in
contact with both warring political factions,” Goltiao
said.
Datu
Bimbo Sinsuat and Tuba Mastura are fighting for the
governorship of the newly created province of Shariff
Kabunsuan. |
