Early voting in 7 Ecija hot spots pushed

CABANATUAN CITY , Philippines  – The Philippine National Police in Nueva Ecija is in favor of holding elections in advance in areas considered to be election “hot spots” to make the conduct of the polls trouble-free even as it identified seven areas – two cities and five municipalities – where problems could arise in 2010.

Senior Superintendent Ricardo Marquez, PNP provincial director, said he is in favor of holding early voting in the identified election watch list areas or the so-called EWAS. EWAS is the police euphemism for the election “hot spots” where peace and order is a problem due to intense political rivalries and past election-related violence.

Marquez said early voting in EWAS would be a plus factor in the pursuit of clean, orderly and peaceful elections in the province. He said this means that he would get more troops from the PNP Regional Mobile Group to guard these areas.

The idea of early voting was first broached in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. The Commission on Elections has been pushing for early elections in the ARMM so it can concentrate its efforts in the region plagued by poll fraud and election-related violence. It is proposing that elections in the ARMM be held not later than April 12 next year, a month earlier than the 2010 elections.

President Arroyo is reportedly willing to certify as urgent pending bills for elections in the ARMM which have been endorsed by the Comelec through a resolution.        

Watch list

Marquez said so far, the only identified EWAS are the towns of Bongabon, Guimba, Quezon, San Antonio and Jaen and the cities of Gapan and Muñoz, not 21 as earlier reported. He said the 21 EWAS were included in the initial report because of the situation obtaining in the 2004 and 2007 elections which may no longer be applicable in 2010.

He cited the case of Lupao town in northern Nueva Ecija where the newly elected mayor, Alfredo Vendivil and his cousin, vice mayor-elect Virgilio Vendivil, were gunned down while seven others were wounded during a derby inside a cockpit arena in San Jose City in June 2007. Marquez said the political atmosphere in Lupao has since changed.

He said that Bongabon was included in the watch list because of recent grenade-throwing incidents while Gapan City was due to an incident during the registration of voters when a brother of outgoing three-term Mayor Ernesto Natividad reportedly choked an election officer for alleged bias in favor of Vice Mayor Christian Tinio who is contesting the mayorship against Natividad’s wife Juanita.         

Jaen was included in the EWAS list because of the heated rivalry between reelectionist fourth district Rep. Rodolfo Antonino and former Jaen mayor Antonio Prospero Esquivel whose differences led to the infamous April 26,2007 shootout that left four persons dead and 17 people wounded, including the two sons of Esquivel. The incident resulted in the placing of the province under Comelec control.