By ARTHA KIRA PAREDES
Photos by AMIEL MARK CAGAYAN
COTABATO CITY—Police officials have recorded six registration-related violent incidents between July 8 and July 13 in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
The assessment was submitted to Task Force Rehistro (TFR) that held its fourth meeting at the Office of the Regional Governor Monday. The Philippine National Police in the ARMM is one of the co-chairs of TFR, which was created on July 2.
The TFR is composed of civil society groups and government agencies working around the theme “Isang Tao, Isang Rehistro, Isang boto” during the 10- day general voters registration from July 9 to 18.
The police report said the violent incidents include the mauling of Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) Sahara Kamarudin by a group of women in Barira, Maguindanao on July 8.
AM Radio station DXMS here had reported that the four women involved in the incident wanted to be PPCRV volunteers. Kamarudin refused to give them PPCRV IDs and T-shirts because the women were not affiliated with the election watchdog organization accredited by the Commission on Elections(Comelec).
On July 10, a shooting incident took place in Barira’s Barangay Tugaig. PO1 Alfatah Tomawis and his group reportedly shot and chased a certain Abolais Manabil because of a personal grudge.
Police Superintendent Adrian Accollador of the Maguindanao Provincial Public Safety Company said the incident took place three kilometers away from the registration center.
Another shooting incident took place last July 12 at the office of the municipal election officer in Barangay Maliwanag, Bayang town in Lanao del Sur. Four men were wounded when they were shot by PO2 Jun Balt.
In Maluso, Basilan, a certain Warkin Sakkam Hajul was distributing registration priority numbers upon the instruction of the election officer when he was mauled by two brothers. The incident temporarily interrupted the registration, but everything went back to normal with intervention from police and Army.
In Talipao, Sulu, two residents of Barangay Bilaan engaged in a fistfight 300 meters away from the clustered registration center of the village, but it was also immediately settled.
The police report also said a .9mm cal. (Taurus), M16 rifle and .45 cal. have been confiscated since the start of the gun ban.
TFR also released the number of registered voters as of July 14 totalling 852, 869. Maguindanao had the highest registered voters so far at 301, 073; followed by Lanao del Sur at 286, 785, Sulu at 127, 471; Tawi-tawi at 73, 079 and Basilan at 64, 461.
Comelec records for 2011 show almost the same ranking of provinces in terms of number of voters, except that Tawi-tawi had the least number of voters.
(ARMM WATCH is a project of VERA Files in partnership with MindaNews, The Asia Foundation and Australian Agency for International Development.)