Maguindanao residents blockade vital highway

PARANG, Maguindanao — Thousands of villagers, both Muslims and Christians, blockaded the Secretary Narciso Ramos Highway yesterday to protest alleged maneuverings by this town’s board of canvassers (MBC) to proclaim a mayoral candidate who reportedly ranked only second in the tabulation.

The protesters, among them religious leaders, urged President Arroyo and Justice Secretary Hernani Perez to intervene and immediately probe the alleged partiality of the municipal board of canvassers, chaired by Ruwaina Sayyadi.

Police said the protesters converged and set up tents on a bridge linking a vital stretch of the highway in Barangay Nituan here, stranding hundreds of motorists.

They demanded the replacement of Sayyadi, whom they accused of siding with one of the four mayoral candidates whose tally of votes, they alleged, has mysteriously swelled in the past two weeks of canvassing inside the regional camp here of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) police.

"We want the real winner to be proclaimed as mayor-elect, not the one who ranks only second or third in the tabulation of votes," said a Protestant pastor, one of the organizers of the human blockade.

The protesters also stopped the vehicle of acting Maguindanao election supervisor Wynne Asdala, who was transporting election materials from Parang to the Army’s 6th Infantry Division’s camp in Cotabato City.

The angry residents suspected that the ballot boxes, which Asdala was transporting, contained election returns rigged in favor of the candidate whom Sayyadi allegedly wanted to proclaim as mayor-elect.

"We are convinced that the proclamation will be done in the 6th ID headquarters which is far away from (where we live). Malacañang should intervene in this controversy," said a public school teacher, who requested anonymity.

Senior Superintendent Omar Ali, information officer of the ARMM police, said the regional police command has sent emissaries to the protesters to convince them to allow vehicles to pass through the highway, which connects Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur.