‘Hakot’ sytem happening all over Tawi-tawi

BONGAO, Tawi-tawi—“Hakot” sytem or the practice of ferrying and transporting residents to voters’ registration centers is happening all over Tawi-tawi, the country’s southernmost province, according to coordinators of the Catholic Church’s election watchdog Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV).

PPCRV volunteers report that registrants are being brought in by air, boat and sea from even as far as the Visayan provinces of Iloilo and Dumaguete, which means those registering could be outsiders being brought in to pad voters’ lists.

Such practices are among those that have resulted in padded voters’ lists that have given the provinces of the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), including Tawi-tawi, the notoriety of being the so-called cheating capital of the country.

It was for this reason that Congress ordered a general registration from July 9 to 18, to purge the voters’ list in the five ARMM provinces—Tawi-tawi, Basilan, Sulu, Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur—and its two cities, Marawi and Lamitan.

Aside from the “hakot” system noted on Day 3 of the general registration of voters, PPCRV volunteers also reported that local officials, particularly barangay officials, have refused to comply with the order of the Commission on Elections to stay away from voters’ registration areas. Comelec had warned these officials they were not even allowed within the perimeter of the registration centers but they refuse to comply.

There has also been some tension in areas where barangays have been clustered into registration centers. In Lakit-lakit, for instance,  two barangay chairmen nearly got into a dispute. This is because one chairman had his constituents line up to register as early as 5 a.m, only to be told by the chairman of the area that they were not to be accommodated and that his own constituents were to register.  Many clustered barangays have made internal arrangements on how the registration of voters would proceed.

So far, registration has been slow, with the election officers able to process only as much as 120 applications per day, way below the targeted 200.