My birth province, Lanao del Sur, is again in the news. Not for a feat that would make its residents proud but for a bit of notoriety. It has earned the “honor” of being the first province to have one of its towns placed under Comelec control ahead of the barangay elections due to serious threats to holding a peaceful electoral exercise.
On the first day to file Certificates of Candidacy or CoC, a barrage of gunshots fired by partisan groups in Malabang town, which residents likened to a New Year celebration, sowed fear. The firing in the heart of town went on for a long time.
According to credible sources, the shooting warned those not affiliated with the current town leadership not to file CoCs. Indeed, would-be candidates not known to support the town’s leaders had to ask Army soldiers to escort them as they filed their CoCs.
But even with their Army escorts in full battle gear, it took three tries before they could complete the process. And even with the military escorts, a shouting match erupted between the two camps. This prompted the aspirants to write the Comelec about the harassment and threats against them.
The village election is, in theory, non-partisan, precluding affiliation or support from a political party, the use of its machinery, or any intervention by politicians.
The shoot-‘em-up did not sit well with the Comelec, which acted with dispatch. Chairman George Erwin Garcia considered the indiscriminate firing a challenge to the commission’s mandate.
He immediately ordered the town placed under Comelec control, which limited, inter alia, the power of the LGU to disburse funds and initiate projects. The latest news is that Comelec has issued a show cause order to town officials to explain why they should not be held criminally responsible for what happened.
The immediate response of the commission to a crisis like that in Malabang gives hope that the present Garcia-helmed Comelec is up to the challenge of holding a credible election. The agency earned plaudits from netizens and sent a signal to one and all that Chairman Garcia, a veteran election lawyer the commissioners support, will do his best to make the election genuinely reflective of the will of the voters.
In the past, incidents like that in Malabang did not merit attention from the commission, and the most they did was to promise to investigate even if tri- and social media were bannering the stories complete with pictures and video footage.
The Malabang incident was not the only one to mar the first day of CoC filing. There were sporadic incidents of politically motivated gun violence, killings, gun attacks, and grenade explosions in various parts of the BARMM like the Maguindanao provinces, Lanao del Sur, and the Special Geographic Area in Cotabato province that were reported in media.
According to reports, the Philippine National Police in the BARMM has raised red flags in about “81.5 percent of the 116 municipalities and three cities in the region.”
It seems that some people refuse to learn from the lessons of the past. Recall that the root cause of the infamous Maguindanao massacre of journalists and civilians was that a political warlord did not want anyone filing a CoC and contesting their leadership of the province. This was defied by Toto Mangudadatu, who sent his wife to file his CoC on his behalf. The massacre ensued, and the rest is history.
In sum, the issuance by Comelec Chairman Garcia of the extraordinary restrictive order with dispatch has earned positive points for Comelec, which is still trying to repair its past image as a source of shenanigans and graft.
Kudos to Chair Garcia and the Commissioners.
amb_mac_lanto@yahoo.com