Abalos to personally monitor elections in Central Mindanao

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao — Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Benjamin Abalos will personally oversee the conduct of the May 10 synchronized elections in Central Mindanao, where many towns are known poll "hot spots."

"I will be around that day. Let’s help one another so that we will not have a failure of elections in any part of the region, or encounter hitches or security problems that will disrupt the elections," Abalos told military and police officials in a dialogue last week at the headquarters here of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division.

Provincial police officials have recommended to Abalos that the canvassing of election results from across the province be held in the 6th ID headquarters due to what they claimed were threats of sabotage by "armed groups and secessionist forces" hostile to many re-electionist officials.

Senior Superintendent Amerodin Hamdag, Maguindanao police director, told Abalos during the dialogue that Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels pose a serious threat to the peaceful conduct of elections in some areas of the province.

"We know for a fact that there are many rebel groups that are at odds with many of our political leaders in the province because of their all-out support for the security missions of the Maguindanao police and the 6th ID," Hamdag said.

Abalos said the Comelec cannot decide on Hamdag’s recommendation without first consulting all political parties and concerned sectors.

"As much as possible, we want to avoid undue speculations and issues that might possibly surface out of holding the counting and tabulation of election results inside a military or police camp," he said.

Hamdag said the canvassing of votes from Maguindanao’s 27 towns would surely go unhampered if done in the 6th ID headquarters here and in Camp S.K. Pendatun, the regional headquarters of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) police in Parang town.

In previous elections, there have been incidents of MILF rebels supporting local candidates and showing force in far-flung areas. — John Unson