Visayas Bureau, Northern Luzon Bureau
Last updated 04:28pm (Mla time) 10/21/2007
CEBU CITY, Philippines--Five hundred sixty-one candidates for the barangay (village) and Sangguniang Kabataan (youth council) elections in Bohol have signed a covenant vowing they will not buy votes for the Oct. 29 elections.
The covenant-signing was held in Maribojoc, Bohol, and witnessed by Maribojoc officials led by Mayor Leoncio Evasco and the town’s parish priest, Fr. Efren Dolauta.
Evasco said the covenant-signing was “a small step towards realizing a dream of a fair, clean and honest elections.â€
The candidates likewise agreed to police themselves and report anyone attempting to buy votes.
“You will be the ones to enforce this pact,†said Evasco, as he urged the candidates to gather evidence of vote buying.
He said the municipal government would help the candidates prosecute those who would refuse to abide by the agreement.
Evasco said synchronized village assemblies would be held on Monday in the town where teams composed of councilors for seven clustered villages would inform voters about the covenant against vote buying.
The same teams will monitor the campaign and Election Day itself in Maribojoc’s 22 villages, according to Evasco.
Villages considered election hotspots would be closely monitored by the municipal government, Evasco said.
Bohol Gov. Erico Aumentado on Friday likewise declared that Bohol leaders had agreed to stay neutral during the campaign period.
Aumentado said during his weekly radio program that he had a pact with the three Bohol congressmen and the president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (Bohol Chapter), Jagna Mayor Exuperio Lloren, to protect the non-partisan character of the village and youth polls.
The governor also directed town mayors to distance themselves from village and youth candidates in their areas.
In Iloilo City, few youths filed their certificates of candidacy (COCs) for the youth council polls amid calls for the abolition of the youth federation.
Jonathan Sayno, Commission on Elections Iloilo City election assistant, said about 200 candidates filed their COCs for SK chair and another 300 for the SK council in the city’s 180 villages.
Sayno said SK candidates were running unopposed in many of the villages.
He said many of those who registered in the SK were discouraged from running for any position because of the costs of filing the COC including having their COCs notarized, which cost around P100, and drug testing which cost P250.
But Sayno said there was a high turnout in candidates for the village elections.
Candidates flocked to the Comelec Iloilo City office to beat the deadline at midnight on Oct. 19. The office was jampacked especially between 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Thursday.
At least 2,000 candidates for the village councils and another 500 for village chairmen filed their COCs.
In Pangasinan, a village official and a candidate for council member in an upland village in Bolinao town were wounded after they were shot by a group of men on Friday night.
Fely Anama, 59, a village councilor in Samang Sur, and Freddie Ariola, 48, a candidate for village council member, were traveling on a dirt road in their village aboard a motorcycle at about 8:30 p.m. when unidentified men fired at them.
Anama was hit by a bullet in the right foot while Ariola was hit in the left hand.
Meanwhile, The Philippine National Police will deploy about 4,000 policemen in Eastern Visayas for the village and youth council elections next week.
The assignment of these policemen, especially in “areas of concern†would help ensure that the conduct of elections in the region would be peaceful and orderly, Chief Supt. Abner Cabalquinto, the police regional director, said on Oct. 17.
Police identified 528 of the 4,391 villages in Eastern Visayas as areas of concern.
Cabalquinto said most of the policemen would come from the regional police headquarters located at Camp Ruperto Kangleon, Palo town, Leyte.
Joey A. Gabieta and Nestor P. Burgos Jr. and Kit Bagaipo, Inquirer Visayas; Gabriel Cardiñoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon
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