Comelec: Last-minute poll deferment possible in some areas

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has assured voters that grassroots polls will push through in the country's 42,000 villages on Monday, but that doesn't mean the poll body cannot make last-minute postponements. This was according to Comelec spokesman James Jimenez, who told GMA News that there is still the possibility that barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections in some areas of northern Luzon hard-hit by typhoon Juan could be deferred. The super typhoon, which battered the northern part of the Philippines' biggest island with winds of up to 250 kph, not only destroyed infrastructure and crops, but also drove thousands of villagers into evacuation centers.
"The evacuation centers are located in schools, where we are supposed to conduct elections," Jimenez said. “If hindi nila ma-clear out by Sunday evening, hindi tayo tuloy [If they can’t clear out the schools by Sunday evening, then it’s a no-go]." "[But] if they are able to clear out the place by Saturday tuloy tayo [then we go ahead]," he quickly added. Jimenez said the poll body would try to get reports and assess the situation in each typhoon-affected barangay to the last minute on Monday, before it decides whether or not to continue with the voting. The three towns in Isabela where elections had been postponed earlier are Divilacan, Palanan, and Maconacon, which the government said were the worst-hit areas by "Juan." The polls there were reset for November, still within the 30-day period allowed by law for the Comelec to administer special elections. The Philippine police and military on Saturday raised the highest security alerts in the country to ensure peaceful and orderly village-level elections. (See: AFP, PNP raise highest alert status for barangay, SK polls) Authorities are keeping a close watch over some 2,000 areas of concern, where possible election-related incidents of violence (ERIVs) are most likely to erupt. The Philippine National Police (PNP) has already boasted that ERIVs for this year's barangay and SK polls have significantly gone down, compared to the last grassroots polls in 2007. The PNP said there have been 34 ERIVs so far in this year’s barangay polls, compared to almost 100 in 2007. The number of election areas of concern this year has also gone down from 4,000 in the 2007 barangay polls. The government has placed 17 villages in Maguindanao under Category 1, which means ERIVs are "highly probable" to occur. The province, said to be dominated by powerful political clans, has long been plagued by skirmishes among private armed groups. In Metro Manila, the PNP is focusing extra attention on Barangay Bayan in Taguig City and Barangay Payatas in Quezon City. In a related development, Comelec-National Capital Region director Michael Dioneda was quoted in a radio report on Saturday as admitting it cannot stop incumbent barangay officials on their third term from running anew in this year's polls. He said the best that the poll body could do is to give the public a list of names of all the candidates who are already on their fourth term, and dissuade them from voting these individuals.—JV, GMANews.TV