Tuesday, October 30, 2007 Quiet at the polls; very low turnout By Grace L. Plata and Carlo P. Mallo
THE noise it seems was only coming from the candidates and their supporters throughout the last day of campaign last Saturday as polling precincts in Davao City Monday were quiet, some too quiet; while several of those who took the time to go to their polling precincts could not locate their names.
Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte expressed disappointment over what he regards as the passivity of the voting public on what he believes is the most important branch of governance.
"I feel sad about this. Siguro kasi kulang sila (people) sa awareness of how important the barangay is in governance. Kung sa sakyanan pa, ligid ni ang barangay (Had this been a vehicle, the barangay councils are the wheels)," the mayor said in an interview prior to casting his vote at Daniel R. Aguinaldo High School Precinct 1245-A Monday afternoon.
Long weekend
The mayor was also saddened to know that even though he showed up at around 1:30 p.m., he was just the 22nd to appear in the precinct where there is 191 registered voters listed. All precincts closed at 3 p.m. and there was no last minute rush observed.
Duterte said the situation is the same in other areas in the city, which he visited for routine peace and order checks.
"For most, the election only means a holiday. Bakasyon lang na medyo mahaba. They have no interest for the barangay affairs which is the basic government unit," Duterte said.
According to Duterte, there are City Government functions and work that should be relegated to the barangay but says this is not possible without officials who are capable and efficient.
Inept barangay officials, Duterte said, will result in the lack of cooperation from voters during the election process thus impeding the development of the barangays.
Maybe, maybe not
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) district offices, however, cannot yet confirm that there is indeed a low turnout of barangay election voters.
"Within 24 hours pa namin malaman ang exact figures. The statistical data will be gleaned by the time the teachers file their reports starting (Monday night) tonight. But so far, we have not experienced na nakulangan mi ug (running out of) official ballots which was the case in the May elections," Aurora Verdeflor of the Comelec 3rd district office said in Monday's phone interview.
Verdeflor added it is only in the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections that they have they have experienced shortage of ballots. This, however, was addressed immediately by borrowing from other precincts.
Generally peaceful
Region-wide, the expected violent barangay elections did not materialize in the Davao Region with only one election-related violent incident reported so far since the campaign period started last September 29.
But the single election-related violence could even be just a family feud.
A slay attempt on one of the candidates for the post of barangay captain last Sunday, the eve of the polls, shattered the peace and quiet of barangay Bincungan in Tagum City, Davao del Norte. The victim, Israel Maug, was shot at by his brother and political rival Jaime Maug.
Reports gathered by Sun.Star Davao revealed that the two had a long-standing feud prior to last Sunday's incident. The victim was riding his vehicle on the way home, when the suspect shot him. Israel survived the attack and only suffered cuts from the shards of glass.
The police are still pursuing the suspect.
Chief Superintendent Andres Caro II, director of the Police Regional Office in Southern Mindanao, said in Monday's Kapehan sa Dabaw, at SM City Davao's Pizza Hut Restaurant, that they have deployed additional personnel in the area.
"We have deployed Tagum City's Mobile Group in the area to enforce peace and order," Caro added.
The monitoring team of the Philippine National Police has not observed any unusual development in any of the polling precincts in the region, he said.
Delayed a little
"All the polling precincts simultaneously opened at 7 in the morning," Caro said, although at least two barangays in Davao City had to wait a little longer due to the inaccessibility of the area.
The Board of Election Tellers together with the election paraphernalia of barangays Salapawan and Tapak, both in the hinterland district of Paquibato, Davao City, had to be flown in by a chopper.
Despite the lack of fanfare, the monitoring team of the Police Regional Office in Southern Mindanao reported that there was a larger voter turnout vis-à-vis the previous barangay elections in 2002.
"Our monitoring teams reported that there were longer queues and more people are still coming to the polling precincts," Caro said shortly before noon Monday.
Usual complaints
Monday's elections came complete with the usual complaints of missing names, but not much else.
According to lawyer Jerry Mujal, election officer of the First District of Davao City, they have not encountered any major problem.
"It's the usual missing names and precincts," Mujal said in an interview Monday.
Mujal, however, said that it is usually the fault of the voter and not of the commission.
"Most of those who complain are not even actually registered voters, or some have forgotten that they have transferred residences and have not requested for a transfer of their precincts," Mujal said.
Moreover, as of noon Monday, there were reports of alleged vote buying and other forms of violations of the Omnibus Election Code. A barangay captain aspirant in Barangay Obrero, Davao City, allegedly gave out P1,500 for those who would vote for him as well as free transportation to and from the polling precincts.
But there has been no formal complaint filed, nor has the Comelec been officially informed about these.
A quick tour of the city's polling precincts showed that some candidates have not ceased campaigning and that some of their supporters are still distributing campaign paraphernalia within a few meters from the polling precincts.
