'Ghost villagers' haunt Maguindanao

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Apart from “ghost voters,” the 36 towns in Maguindanao also teemed with thousands of “ghost villagers,” or non-existent residents recorded in the census.

National Statistic Office provincial director Razulden Mangelen told reporters that the 2010 census of the province showed that it only had a population of 944,718, compared to 1,273,715 during the 2007 census.

The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao’s 24-seat regional assembly created five new towns in the province from 2007 to 2008 based on a set of criteria that included income-generation capability and a population ceiling.

Mangelen said it took his office two years of extensive counter-checking and revalidation processes before they were able to publicly reveal the 2010 census results, which showed a 328,997 decrease from the population count in 2007.

“We were surprised by the differing statistics so we initiated (an) extensive revalidation before making the 2010 census public,” he explained.

Mangelen added that the outcome of the 2010 Maguindanao census would surely enrage some local officials because the amount of the Internal Revenue Allotment for every municipality in the province is based on the proportional size of the population.

He cited the town of Shariff Aguak, the former capital of Maguindanao, which during the 2007 census had 70,340 residents, but the population count in 2010 was only 35,964.

To address the discrepancy, Mangelen has initiated dialogues with local executives in the towns where the 2010 census indicated a reduction in the number of their constituents.

Mangelen’s announcement on the discrepancies between the 2007 and 2010 census in Maguindanao came after the Commission on Elections revealed that it has delisted more than 100,000 “ghost voters and multiple registrants” from the list of voters in the ARMM.