COTABATO CITY – Policemen trained to perform as election officers
took the place of over 60 teachers here, who refused to show up in their
assigned voting centers for the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law, due
to alleged threats on their lives.
Lawyer Ernie Palanan, Maguindanao election supervisor, which includes
Cotabato City as his area of supervision, said the teachers have earlier
received threats via text messages.
“The teachers backed out from serving the plebiscite due to fear,” he
told newsmen here in an interview.
The barangays include Rosary Heights 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 10, all in this
city.
He said the Commission on Elections-Maguindanao, in coordination with
the Department of Education-Cotabato City, has fielded the said election
officers to the concerned villages for the referendum to push through.
In other parts of the city’s 37 villages, disenfranchisement of voters,
as in the past, remained a perennial problem.
In nearby Maguindanao province, no untoward incident has been reported
so far in connection with the conduct of the plebiscite in its 36 towns. (PNA/By Noel Punzalan)
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