In the 2004 presidential race, allegations of cheating involving former election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano focused on votes in Mindanao. Last year election supervisor Lintang Bedol was accused of manipulating the votes in favor of administration senatorial candidates in Maguindanao. During the regime of Ferdinand Marcos, it was said that one of his most trusted lieutenants from Mindanao could be relied upon to deliver the votes even of dead constituents.
Vote padding and shaving as well as the so-called three Gs — guns, goons and gold — have long marred electoral exercises all over the country. In the past years the problem has been worse in certain parts of Mindanao. The election scandals involving Garcillano and Bedol have not been resolved.
All this should provide additional impetus for the government to be fully prepared for the elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. But with the ARMM elections just three months away, the government looks anything but prepared. The Commission on Elections has said full poll automation is no longer possible. But amid intense lobbying by certain individuals, Comelec officials have said partial automation will push through.
Apart from pressure to computerize voting in the ARMM, the seven-member Comelec must also contend with the lack of two commissioners. Retired Supreme Court justice Jose Melo, who originally wanted to wait for his confirmation by the Commission on Appointments, was compelled to assume the post of Comelec chairman because the commission was saddled with a heavy workload. The problem was aggravated by the murder of the acting head of the Comelec’s legal department, who had assumed the post after the former chief was himself murdered. The second murder has been linked by investigators to an election protest in Mindanao.
That kind of violence should prod the government to increase its level of preparedness for the elections on Aug. 11. The ARMM has always been an election hot spot. It doesn’t have to be that way forever.