No poll materials yet in Caraga

BUTUAN CITY — With three days to go before Election Day, Commission on Elections (Comelec) officials in the Caraga region — composed of the two Agusan and two Surigao provinces — are in a quandary.

The reason: as of yesterday, no official ballots, election return forms, indelible ink and other election paraphernalia had arrived from Manila.

Lawyer Rogelio Goñgob, acting Caraga election director, told The STAR that compared to the 2001 polls where election materials were delivered a week before, this time "we have not received instructions yet from the Comelec office on how (they) will be transported."

A check with this city’s treasurer office yesterday afternoon confirmed the non-arrival of election paraphernalia.

In a command conference with officials of the police, military, education department and local electric cooperatives the other day, Goñgob said the Comelec "is all set" for the May 10 elections.

But in an interview in his office at the Agusan del Norte provincial capitol after the meeting, Goñgob admitted that the election materials had not yet arrived.

Asked if they still have time to distribute the materials to 5,926 polling precincts in 1,308 barangays throughout the region, Goñgob said they would have to work double-time to make up for the lapse.

Records show that there are 1,163,658 registered voters in the three cities and 70 towns in the four Caraga provinces.

Meanwhile, the police and the military will deploy some 3,000 uniformed personnel across the region starting Sunday, to ensure the peaceful conduct of the elections.

Col. Leopoldo Maligalig, commanding officer of the Army’s 402nd Infantry Brigade, said the New People’s Army (NPA) poses the biggest threat to peace and order on Monday.

Earlier, the local NPA said in a statement that it would mobilize its members to ensure that no politicians would dare commit any form of fraud in the electoral exercise.