No postponement of elections in Sulu’s hostile areas

COTABATO CITY – The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) police is not keen on recommending the postponement of elections in hostile towns in Sulu.

More than 20,000 Tausog villagers have been driven from their homes by a spate of encounters between government forces and renegade members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) since April 11 in three adjoining towns in the island province.

Chief Superintendent Joel Goltiao, director of ARMM police, said the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has the discretion to decide whether polling would be held or not in some areas in Sulu.

"If the Comelec will tell us that elections would push through in Sulu, the Philippine National Police (PNP)-ARMM is prepared to help ensure a peaceful and orderly conduct of elections there on May 14," Goltiao told The STAR.

Goltiao said the PNP-ARMM, in fact, has initiated a peace dialogue among politicians vying for different elective positions in the province in the island’s 18 towns as part of the effort to ensure peaceful conduct of elections in the area.

"The conflict in Sulu is not election-related so we don’t see any reason why we need to recommend the postponement of elections in the area," Goltiao said.

The hostilities in the province started April 11 when MNLF forces, under Ustadz Habier Malik, attacked a base of the Philippine Marine Corps in Panamao town, provoking widespread hostilities that forced thousands of innocent villagers to evacuate to safer grounds.

Goltiao said political leaders in Sulu are not in anyway involved in the conflict.

"As far as our assessment is concerned, all of the political leaders in the province supports the efforts of the Comelec, the PNP and the Armed Forces to ensure peaceful and honest elections in the province.

There are three candidates vying for governor of Sulu ‑ re-electionist Gov. Benjamin Loong, businessman Sakur Tan and the MNLF’s founding chairman, Nur Misuari.

Highly placed sources from the Sulu provincial peace and order council said they are expecting a close fight between Loong and Tan, who was Sulu’s governor in the late 1990s.