FOLLOWING are links to articles VERA Files had written on the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Elections in the province of Maguindanao. VERA Files is reposting these stories in preparation for the scheduled general registration of voters in the provinces of ARMM on July 9 to July 18, 2012.
SET: Spurious ballots, COCs proved Pimentel was cheated • August 11, 2011
FAKE or highly questionable ballots and certificates of canvass were some of the strongest pieces of evidence that showed newly proclaimed Senator, Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, was nearly robbed of his seat in the Senate.
Lawyer Irene Guevarra, secretary of the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET), said these were enough to prove there was massive cheating in the 2007 midterm elections. While admitting the existence poll fraud, Guevarra did not want to point fingers as to who might have been behind the electoral fraud.
On Thursday, the SET made history as it proclaimed Pimentel as the duly elected senator over Juan Miguel Zubiri, who had already resigned as senator a week earlier. It is the first time that a new official had been proclaimed as a result of the SET findings. Despite their decision, Pimentel has less than a year and 10 months to finish his term. »Read More
Ampatuan Jr. pleads not guilty to massacre of 57th victim • July 28, 2010
HEARINGS on the Maguindanao massacre resumed Wednesday, the first under the Aquino government, with former Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. and 16 other suspects pleading not guilty to the murder of the 57th victim, UNTV journalist Victor Nunez.
Ampatuan, the alleged mastermind, and the other suspects, mostly police officers, were each asked in Filipino and entered their pleas separately. »Read More
Minus Ampatuans, Maguindanao celebrates ‘peaceful’ polls • June 22, 2010
SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao.—In the province where the worst pre-election violence in Philippine history happened on Nov. 23, there was reason to celebrate when the worst-case scenarios on election day did not happen.
Soldiers and policemen were already tearing down the posters of candidates and other election paraphernalia a day after the elections. At the provincial capitol grounds, soldiers sought refuge from the searing heat under trees like it were an ordinary day.
Two days after the elections, the 6th Infantry Division hosted a breakfast meeting at Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat town to celebrate the success of the country’s first automated elections, particularly Maguindanao’s “generally peaceful” polls. »Read More
For security reasons, new Maguindanao gov to hold office in hometown • June 21, 2010
SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao.—Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu will take his oath of office as the new governor on June 30 and deliver his inaugural address in his hometown Buluan, 40 kilometers from the provincial capitol here.
Mangudadatu intends to be far from this place, the bailiwick of the Ampatuans who are standing trial for the Nov. 23 massacre that left his wife Genalyn and 57 other civilians dead in what is now known as the worst case of pre-election violence in the country’s history. »Read More
Aide denies losing bet ordered burning of houses in Maguindanao town • May 22, 2010
KIDAPAWAN CITY.–The personal secretary of a defeated mayoral candidate in Montawal town in Maguindanao has vehemently denied their involvement in the burning of several houses in a barangay which took place on Sunday.
Abdul Karim said his employer, Datu Arkhan Matalam, son of a powerful clan in Maguindanao has no private army to carry out such thing. »Read More
Maguindanao’s new gov wants special census: “physical count of people, one by one” • May 17, 2010
BULUAN, Maguindanao. – Governor-elect Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu is requesting the National Statistics Office (NSO) to have a special census for Maguindanao.
“I want a physical count ng mga tao (of people). One by one,” Mangudadatu said.
“Hindi naman ito (This is not about) vengeance,” he told MindaNews late Saturday afternoon in his brother’s residence. “Niloloko nila yung gobyerno eh (they’re fooling government),” he said. »Read More
Ismael Veloso Mastura, the reluctant candidate • May 17, 2010
SHARIFF AGUAK , Maguindanao.– If Ismael “Dustin” Veloso Mastura, 39, had a choice, he would be happy running for vice mayor of Sultan Kudarat town. But fate would lead him to run for and win against the 68-year old warlord, Datu Andal Ampatuan, Sr.
His uncle Tucao, who would have been proclaimed governor of Shariff Kabunsuan province in the 2007 elections but for a temporary restraining order from the Supreme Court and the latter’s declaring its creation unconstitutional, had filed his candidacy for mayor of Sultan Kudarat town when Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu, who was running for Governor, sought the Masturas for a running mate. »Read More
Ampatuan patriarch is out but other massacre suspects and their wives win top posts • May 15, 2010
SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao. – The Ampatuan patriarch, Datu Andal Ampatuan, Sr., lost his bid to become vice governor of Maguindanao but ten other clan members implicated in the November 23, 2009 massacre, won in Monday’s elections.
At least 12 prominent members of the clan are implicated in the massacre, six of them detained in Bicutan, Metro Manila (Ampatuan Sr. and Junior, mayor of Datu Unsay town; ARMM Governor Datu Zaldy; Datu Anwar, detained mayor of Shariff Aguak; and Sajid, former Vice Governor and OIC Governor; and the patriarch’s son in law, Datu Akmad M. Ampatuan) while six others are still at large (grandsons Saudi Jr., Bahnarin and Datu Anwar “Ipi” Ampatuan, Jr.; Kanor Datumanong Ampatuan , Datu Mama Ampatuan and Datu Norodin Ampatuan). »Read More
Irregularities mar ARMM polls • May 14, 2010
COTABATO CITY.— Despite the peaceful elections reported in most places in the country, voting in certain parts of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao was marked by irregularities.
According to the Citizens Coalition for ARMM Electoral Reforms Inc. (Citizens CARE), an organization mandated by the Commission on Elections to monitor the various polling precincts in the region, the following incidents have been observed in the May 10 elections:
• brawls and the destruction of PCOS machines in the towns of Barira, Maguindanao and Indanan of Sulu;
• vote buying and selling;
• failure to post the Computerized Voters’ List on election day;
• use of children to distribute campaign materials on voting day;
• failure to apply indelible ink on the forefingers of voters; and
• disenfranchisement of voters through the unauthorized use of their names and the presence of “flying voters.” »Read More
School principal in Parang town killed • May 14, 2010
COTABATO CITY.— Two unidentified persons killed a school principal on a busy street in this city Thursday morning.
The incident happened at around 9 a.m. and was witnessed by sidewalk vendors and bystanders along the said street in Cotabato City.
The incident is believed to have been election-related since the victim, Abdulrakman Mero, had arrived the night before from Bongo Island and brought with him the election returns for the municipal elections of Parang, Maguindanao. »Read More
Int’l observers witness ‘worst case of cheating’ in Buldon, Maguindanao • May 12, 2010
INTERNATIONAL observers who monitored the May 10 automated polls documented many cases of election irregularities in different parts of Maguindanao, including what they described as the “worst case of cheating” in Buldon town.
The foreign observers from the Compact for Peaceful and Democratic Elections (COMPACT) reported massive vote buying and multiple voting in the polling precincts in Buldon, where persons who were not members of the Board of Electoral Inspectors (BEIs) were mostly the ones operating the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.
They said ballots were “all over the place” and that even unauthorized persons were seen holding them in bunches. Underage voters and even poll watchers were allowed to vote, they added. »Read More
Election Day: Most peaceful yet more violent? • May 10, 2010
AT LEAST a dozen people were killed and another dozen injured on Election Day today in what police declare as the “most peaceful elections so far” but in what a Commission on Elections official considers as more violent than the country’s past elections.
Task Force Honest, Orderly and Peaceful Elections (Task Force HOPE) of the Armed Forces recorded 37 cases of election-related violence nationwide on Monday, including six shooting incidents, 13 episodes of harassment, five encounters, five cases of voters intimation, three mauling incidents and two bomb explosions. The task force also monitored the confiscation of a firearm and a ballot snatching incident.
The Philippine National Police and the AFP have been on full red alert for the elections. »Read More
Military, local officials vow peaceful elections in Kabuntalan • May 6, 2010
KABUNTALAN, Maguindanao. – Officials and other stakeholders here vowed to avoid any election-related violence incidents during the May polls.
During a meeting held last month at the League of Barangay Training Center in Lower Taviran, Kabuntalan, election officers, town and barangay officials, the Army and police, civil society members, and community members said the elections this year should be peaceful and fraud-free.
Maguindanao, along with other provinces in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, have been identified by the Philippine National Police as an election hotspot. Political rivalries in the region have led to bloody feuds and deaths, especially during the elections. »Read More
Mangudadatu rejects revenge, seeks gun-less society • April 11, 2010
BULUAN, Maguindanao. —If he wins, he will turn Maguindanao into a gun-less society.
Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu promised this during the Gubernatorial Candidates Forum and Dialogue held on April 6, the first of a series of dialogues between candidates and civil society organizations in Maguindanao. Mangudadatu was the first candidate invited to the dialogue.
He added that he will not seek revenge for the murder of his wife and relatives who were among the 57 people killed on Nov. 23 as they headed for Shariff Aguak to file the certificate of candidacy on Mangudadatu’s behalf. Also killed in that incident were about 30 journalists who joined the convoy. »Read More
Clans dominate in Maguindanao; 68 Ampatuans, 15 Mangudadatus running • February 8, 2010
DAVAO CITY.–The Ampatuans, Mangudadatus, Midtimbangs, Sinsuats, Masturas, Sangkis comprise the majority among Maguindanao’s 879 candidates running for 374 posts: two congressional representatives to Congress, one governor, one vice-governor, 10 provincial board members, 36 mayors, 36 vice mayors and 288 municipal board members or councilors.
The Ampatuans lead the list of candidates with 50 carrying the same surname, at least 23 of them directly related to the patriarch, Datu Andal Ampatuan, Sr., and 18 with Ampatuan as middle name, according to records of the Commission on Elections.
Among the Ampatuans running are the patriarch, Datu Andal Ampatuan, Sr., the three-term governor of Maguindanao who resigned in January 2009 and returned as OIC governor in late 2009 (he was OIC governor when the November 23 massacre in Ampatuan town happened). »Read More
Working ‘miracles’ in Mindanao • July 28, 2008
(First published in July 2005)
WHEN the official canvassing of votes ended on June 20, 2004, those who were monitoring the count already thought that the results from the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) looked suspicious. Even Mahar Mangahas of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) could not help but notice the huge disparity between the Namfrel tally for ARMM and the results of the Social Weather Stations exit poll there on one hand and the congressional count on the other.
“ARMM to me from the very beginning is the place where people should look,” Mangahas said.
A year ago, though, only a few bothered to do so, and their concerns were not given much attention. Then came the “Garci” tapes, which have put the spotlight back on the Mindanao votes of 2004, and how these were key to the president’s winning margin. In fact, the five ARMM provinces – Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao – as well as the predominantly Muslim Cotabato City and Sultan Kudarat province in Region 12 were at the core of the conversations between President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano. »Read More
