Cotabato City folk nix poll ‘hot spot’ tag

COTABATO CITY — This city’s business and religious communities have chided anew the local opposition for persistently asking the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to declare the city a poll "hot spot."

Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema, chairman of the city peace and order council, said the move of local candidates of the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP), led by mayoralty aspirant Estrellita Juliano, is sending "wrong signals" to investors planning to venture into viable projects here.

Juliano and her partymates have asked the Comelec to put the city under its full control during the May 10 polls.

"That’s a big blunder on the part of local candidates of the opposition. It’s a shameful projection that the forthcoming May 10 elections in the city may not be peaceful and orderly," said a Chinese-Filipino businessman, who asked not to be identified.

The 1998 and 2001 elections here, Sema said, had both been peaceful, thus, there is no reason for the city to be declared an election "hot spot."

"That’s very unfair to the business community. The peace advocates in the city and surrounding towns and the Islamic and Christian religious communities have not spoken about any apprehension about their safety come May 10," said Sema, secretary-general of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

Sema said Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Benjamin Abalos, who held a dialogue with military and police commanders in Central Mindanao at the command headquarters of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division here early this month, has promptly brushed aside the request of Juliano’s group.

A Catholic priest, who requested anonymity, said it would be "absurd" for the city to be declared a poll "hot spot" since the 1998 and 2001 local elections had been peaceful and orderly.

"Obviously, that would have a big impact on the efforts of the business community to stabilize our economy which has suffered so much from recent conflicts in surrounding towns," the priest said. — John Unson