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Thursday, July 01, 2004
Threats swamp election officer
By Minerva B. Gerodias
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
THREATS did not sway Provincial Election Supervisor Edwin Cadungog from proceeding with the canvassing yesterday.
For an hour, no less than 20 threats were sent by text to Cadungog, chairman of the Cebu Provincial Board of Canvassers.
“Gi-insulto mi nimong taga-norte. Klaro na nga daug si Martinez. Nagdala lang ka og gubot,” one message said. (You have insulted the people from the north. It is clear that Celestino Martinez Jr. has won. You just want to cause trouble.)
The threats arrived between 5 and 6 p.m. as the canvassing was being wrapped up, and it was apparent that Gwendolyn Garcia, not former congressman Martinez, would be proclaimed governor.
Cadungog reported the threats to the police and asked for a security escort, but refused to say who he thought had sent the threats.
Scrambling to proclaim a governor hours after the previous term ended, Cadungog also said that Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Benjamin Abalos, in a phone call, told him to “proceed (with the canvassing) at your own risk.”
Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) Director Maximo Calimlim, who was among those who secured the canvassing area, said he will talk to Cadungog and provide him with two security escorts.
Cadungog, 38, acknowledged that the threats were part of his job.
“I’m only doing my job. Some people may have resented me for this,” Cadungog said.
Aside from the text messages, Cadungog also got a call from someone who pressured him to stop the canvassing and asked him why he does not obey his superiors.
“It must be the aggrieved party. Who could be doing that?” the election officer said.
Jane Petralba, Martinez’s lawyer during the canvassing, refused to comment on the threat. However, she said she hopes nothing untoward will happen to Cadungog, who is soon to be married.
Cadungog has been the acting provincial election supervisor for more than two years but he was assigned in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) years ago.
The pressures he got because of the Garcia-Martinez rivalry were more than what he experienced
while he was still in ARMM, he said.
Cadungog proclaimed Gwendolyn, daughter of former governor Pablo Garcia, at 5:50 p.m. yesterday.
“Before this proclamation, I received so many death threats but because this is my job, I’ll do this gladly.”
(July 1, 2004 issue)
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