Ballots for Abra polls kept at bishop’s house

To ensure the security of ballots and election paraphernalia for violence-prone Abra province, the Commission on Elections has decided to keep them at the house of a local Catholic bishop. Abra Bishop Leopoldo Jaucian granted the request of Abra Provincial Election Supervisor Vanessa Roncal to have the ballots stored in his house in Bangued until Election Day. “No one would dare raid the bishop’s compound to destroy the ballots or the vans," Fr. Drexel Ramos, who is in charge of election concerns in the province, said in an article on the Union of Catholic Asian News website Friday. The UCA News site said a Philippine National Police (PNP) team from outside Abra province has been guarding the padlocked trucks since they arrived on April 26. Voting machines for the province arrived at the Comelec headquarters in Banqued on April 28. Ramos said the ballots will be stored in Jaucian’s house until they are “distributed to the 340 clustered voting precincts in the province." The PNP had listed Abra as an election hotspot because of reports of violence during polls, as well as the presences of armed groups. “Various clans have several members running for national and local posts. One candidate is a brother of a congressman assassinated in 2006," the report said. Abra Rep. Luis Bersamin was killed outside the Mount Carmel Church in Quezon City in December 2006. His rival, ex-Abra governor Vicente Valera has been linked to the killing. [See: Ex-Abra gov linked to Bersamin killing falls] On the other hand, fresh military troops have also arrived in the province to help keep order during the election period. Meanwhile, Ramos supported a petition to place Abra province under the control of the Commission on Elections (Comelec). The Comelec commissioner assigned to the province would be acting as governor and have stronger control over provincial and law enforcement agencies, the priest pointed out. Also, Ramos expressed concern over reports that there is one machine short and that there are no back-ups in the case of theft or machine breakdown. About 84 percent of the 242,629 people in the diocese are Catholics. — LBG/RSJ, GMANews.TV