Irate Davao folk take poll officer hostage

GOV. GENEROSO, Davao Oriental — Fed up by the delay in the proclamation of winners in the local elections, hundreds of residents of this coastal town trapped the chairman of the municipal board of canvassers inside his office Saturday night.

With elected officials assuming office on June 30, Gov. Generoso is the only town in the entire Southern Mindanao which still has no officially proclaimed mayor, vice mayor and councilors.

"I was taken hostage," said election officer Sulaiman Alilian, showing the scratches inflicted on him by some of the residents.

Tension eased when a unit of the Regional Mobile Group (RMG) intervened and allowed Alilian to leave his office in the town hall.

Alilian said he could not proclaim anybody last Saturday because of certain legal impediments, particularly the appeal filed by mayoral bet Vicente Orencia with the Commission on Elections’ first division.

He added that election returns from at least 26 polling precincts have been questioned, and this will affect the outcome of the local polls.

Orencia has filed at least three protests, delaying the canvassing of votes from 20 barangays. Mayor Jerry de la Cerna, a former priest, was reportedly leading Orencia in the canvassing.

Alilian told reporters at the RMG headquarters in neighboring Lupon town where he was brought after the incident that the residents who took him hostage wanted him to proclaim De la Cerna.

But in a ruling last Saturday, Alilian said he would make the proclamation after the Comelec’s first division has acted on Orencia’s motion for reconsideration.

Superintendent Harry Espela, whose men defused the tension, refused to say whether the incident was a "hostage-taking," saying the residents appeared to have just prevented Alilian from leaving his office.