More cops to secure special polls in Vizcaya b’gay

DUPAX DEL NORTE, Nueva Vizcaya — Additional policemen were sent to secure the safety of voters in Barangay Binwangan here where special elections for local positions are being held today.

Senior Superintendent Felix Caddali, provincial police director, said the additional police personnel, along with a 30-man Army contingent, were deployed amid threats of harassment of voters and poll personnel.

"We are not taking any chances. We have to send additional personnel," he said.

Police and military intelligence sources said armed men believed to be communist rebels and goons of political candidates have frequented Barangay Binwangan since the Commission on Elections (Comelec) declared a failure of elections on May 10 and scheduled special balloting there, originally last May 22.

Lawyer Abraham Asuncion, provincial election supervisor, said today’s special polls were prompted by a ballot box-snatching incident in the remote mountain village.

The ballot boxes were snatched by still unidentified men while they were being transported to the town proper for the municipal canvassing.

The ballot boxes contained the ballots of the more than 400 registered voters in the village, which is about a three-hour drive from the capital town of Bayombong.

The votes of Binwangan folk can still affect the mayoral fight between re-electionist Mayor Isaias Almuete and incumbent Vice Mayor Jesus Bareng as well as the race for the fifth and sixth slots in the southern district’s provincial board race.

Almuete (Lakas-CMD) is holding a precarious lead over Bareng (LDP-independent) with a measly 17 votes.

In the provincial board race, currently holding the fifth slot is incumbent board member Efren Quiben, who has a margin of 168 votes over incumbent Santa Fe Mayor Teodorico Padilla, who is in the sixth slot.

The province’s northern and southern districts are allotted five board members each. — Charlie Lagasca