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No poll records taken in Maguindanao capitol ransacking - Comelec


No important documents or records significant to the May 2010 elections were taken when still unidentified men ransacked the provincial capitol of Maguindanao in Shariff Aguak town, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said Wednesday. "According to our local poll executives from Maguindanao, there were no important documents taken from our Comelec office there," said Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez at a press briefing in Manila. Jimenez said the Comelec provincial office in the area was not the target of the ransacking, but the provincial building itself. "The whole [capitol] is practically unoccupied. People had gone into the building and taken some things… The Comelec office was not the target of the ransacking. It just so happened that the Comelec office was in the capitol as well," he said. A local election official from Maguindanao earlier said thieves broke into the Comelec provincial office in Shariff Aguak town during the holidays and took some kitchen utensils from the area. The province of Maguindanao was placed under military rule last month, following the brutal massacre of at least 57 people in the area, allegedly masterminded by the Ampatuan clan. The victims, mostly members of the rival Mangudadatu clan and media personnel, were on their way to the Comelec provincial office to file Buluan Vice Mayor Ismael Mangudadatu's certificate of candidacy for the province's gubernatorial post. Last Tuesday, Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. pleaded not guilty to 41 counts of murder lodged against him in connection with the November 23 massacre. The next hearing is set on January 13. - Dreo Calonzo/RSJ/KBK, GMANews.TV

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