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Sunday, June 27, 2004
OICs to head 5 towns in Mindanao: Comelec
By Marie Neri
MANILA -- Five municipalities in Mindanao will be run by an officer-in-charge (OIC) until the Commission on Elections (Comelec) resolved the cases of double proclamation.
Commissioner Resurreccion Borra said the municipalities in Maguindanao that will be managed by an OIC includes South Upi, Talitay and Matanog as well as Columbio and Cabuntalan in Sultan Kudarat.
Borra said the Comelec en banc would be coming out with a resolution to allow the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to appoint the OIC until the commission decides on who should assume office on the five municipalities.
Decision
"We decided to suspend the proclamation of the candidates until we have resolved the issue on double proclamation," Borra said.
Comelec chairman Benjmain Abalos Sr. earlier said that apart from resolving the issue of double and multiple proclamation, the commission will also look into the involvement and violations of the election officers who committed the double proclamation.
Abalos said if the election officers are guilty of an election office they will be filed criminal and administrative charges.
"If the evidence are strong, we will prosecute them," Abalos told reporters.
Double
Though this was not the first case of double proclamation, Borra admitted that this is the first incident that double and multiple proclamations were committed.
Beside the suspension of the proclamation of the candidates in three municipalities in Maguinadanao and in Sultan Kudarat, Comelec has also instructed the senior staff to review the overseas absentee voting to determine the reasons for the low turn out of registration and voting.
Borra said they wanted to establish clearly why out of the estimated 7 million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) abroad only more than 300,000 have registered and about 65 percent of those who registered had actually participated and voted in the May 10, 2004 polls.
Borra said the provision in the overseas absentee voting that needs to be repealed is the portion wherein the OFWs would have to sign an affidavit and promise to return to the country after three years.
He also proposed to eliminate the countries that have no voting population and set a specific number of voters before putting up polling precincts.
During the absentee voting, four countries recorded a zero turn out of voters and this includes Norway and Mozambique.
(June 27, 2004 issue)
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