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Tuesday, May 15, 2007
2 killed, 6 hurt in attack on polling precinct in Batangas
MANILA (Updated) -- A teacher and a poll watcher died while six others were injured when five unidentified men raided a polling center in Batangas and burned ballot boxes before dawn Tuesday.
Chief Superintendent Nicasio Radovan, director of the PNP Calabarzon
(Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) identified the fatalities as
Nellie Banaag, who was among the election supervisor in the precinct, and poll watcher Leslie Ramos.
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Radovan said five men barged into Precinct 76-A in Pinagbayanan
Elementary School in Pinagbayanan village in Taysan town in Batangas at about 3 a.m. and poured gasoline on the ballot boxes.
The suspects fled after firing at the ballot boxes using M16 rifles, setting off a blaze which spread to seven school buildings. The fire was put off by responding authorities two hours later.
One of the witnesses identified as Jimmy Arias said he saw the suspects entering the precinct with gasoline placed in two 1.5 liter softdrink bottles.
Arias said he thought that what the five men brought were refreshments but he later realized that the men were up to something sinister when they poured the contents of the bottles on the ballot boxes and opened fire.
Meanwhile, elements of the Army’s 53rd Infantry Battalion seized several firearms from the vehicle of a vice mayoral candidate in the village of Bibilik in Dumalinao town in Zamboanga del Sur during a checkpoint on Monday night.
Soldiers confiscated four rifles from the L300 van of vice mayoral bet Hernand dela Cruz, who was accompanied by his security escorts - policeman Lito Angos Umbos and militiaman Alan Sacappano.
The van was accompanied by a Pajero vehicle occupied by Provincial
Board member candidate Elmar Buhawi, a retired military colonel; Senior
Police Officers 1 Jose Legan Sarcina, Leonel Buhawi and Diosdado Mansi and former military personnel. (VR/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Cebu. (May 15, 2007 issue)
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Violence, missing names hound polls