Malacañang accepts ARMM polls won't be postponed

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang has apparently accepted the fact that the Aug. 11 elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) will not be postponed as Congress failed to pass the bill to defer the regional polls.

Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said yesterday the failure to postpone the elections would only upset the timetable for the peace process, which has already suffered a setback with the temporary restraining order issued by the Supreme Court on the controversial memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain that was to have been signed by the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia last Tuesday.

House Majority Leader Arthur Defensor has already accepted that the postponement of the ARMM polls is no longer possible because even if the House approves the measure, the Senate is apparently not interested in passing their version of the bill.

“The final decision must come from Congress. We submit to their sound judgment,” Dureza said.

He said that the postponement of the ARMM elections was never a condition by the MILF for the peace process to move forward.

“So if it will be postponed, the timetable will be a little flexible. It upsets the timetable,” Dureza said.

“But every election is democracy in action. So we should take it as that,” he added.

Malacañang pushed for the postponement of the ARMM elections as a confidence building measure in the peace process with the MILF.

The MILF demanded that the ARMM elections be postponed as they felt that it would serve as an obstacle to the peace process. MILF leaders fear that the three-year term of the new ARMM officials would further delay the implementation of the peace agreement.

President Arroyo certified as a priority bill the measure seeking the postponement of the elections but there was very little time left for Congress to act on it.

Election hot spots reduced

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has lowered the number of election hot spots or “areas of immediate concern” from 300 to 49 as preparations step up for the ARMM elections.

The elections will be the sixth in the region since its creation through a plebiscite in 1990. The ARMM, which covers Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Shariff Kabunsuan, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, and the cities of Lamitan and Marawi, has 1.5 million registered voters.

The MILF has reportedly given assurances that its forces will not disrupt the regional elections, but the ARMM police and the military are not taking any chances.

Chief Superintendent Joel Goltiao, director of ARMM police, said combat-ready policemen would be deployed to assist the Comelec in conducting peaceful and orderly elections.

Goltiao said the police would assign 6,000 troops, to be placed under the guidance of the Comelec, in strategic areas in the autonomous region to ensure peaceful and honest elections.

“Everything is in place now, we are ready and we’re very optimistic of peaceful and clean elections come Aug. 11,” Goltiao said.

Lawyer Oscar Sampulna, ARMM executive secretary, said the regional government would start today airing messages on radio appealing to voters to exercise their right of suffrage.

“People must be informed that in the absence of a law postponing the regional elections, the exercise shall proceed as scheduled. We shall also be appealing to all sectors in ARMM to help the Comelec administer peaceful and honest elections,” Sampulna said.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez told reporters in a press briefing yesterday at Camp S.K. Pendatun in Shariff Kabunsuan that election results from the more than a hundred towns of the ARMM will be canvassed at six designated sites that will be secured by the police and the military.

In Basilan, canvassing will be conducted at the Basilan National High School in Isabela City while election results in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi will be processed at the campuses of the Mindanao State University in Jolo, and in Sanga-Sanga District in Bongao, respectively.

Jimenez said canvassing of election results from Lanao del Sur towns would be conducted at the provincial capitol in Marawi City.

He said the canvassing site for Maguindanao is at the provincial capitol in Shariff Aguak, while that of Shariff Kabunsuan will be at the Cotabato City State Polytechnic College in Cotabato City.

Sulu Gov. Hadji Sakur Tan is convinced that the elections would be peaceful since all of the 18 mayors there are supporting only re-electionist Gov. Datu Zaldy Ampatuan.

“There is the same situation in the other provinces of ARMM. Virtually, all of the six provincial governors and more than a hundred mayors in the ARMM support only Ampatuan. How can there be trouble among them? We are confident we shall have peaceful elections,” Tan said in a text message.

Superintendent Danilo Bacas, spokesman and operations director of the ARMM police, said they appreciate the MILF’s assurance that rebel forces will not disrupt the regional polls.  – With Sheila Crisostomo, Cecille Suerte Felipe