Brillantes: Comelec prepared for ARMM polls

Newly appointed Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairperson Sixto Brillantes Jr. on Tuesday said the poll body is "prepared" to hold elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) whether on its original schedule in August 2011 or on a later date. Brillantes said the Comelec does not want a repeat of what happened during the past barangay polls, when preparations were supposedly derailed by proposals to postpone the elections. "We are prepared and we have been preparing for the past few months. We do not want to experience what happened during the barangay elections when it was planned to be postponed but was not postponed," he said. Brillantes issued his statement during a hearing of the House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms on House Bill 3542 filed by Lanao del Sur Rep. Pangalian Balindong seeking to reset the August 2011 ARMM polls to May 2013. Included in the ARMM are the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and the Islamic City of Marawi. Brillantes added that while he personally favors postponing the ARMM elections to coincide with the May 2013 midterm polls, the Comelec will "leave it to Congress" to decide the date of the polls in the region. "If it is postponed, it will relieve us of some of our problems. We would concentrate on perfecting the automated elections. If not, we can just perfect the system used during the May 2010 elections," he said during the hearing. Grassroots polls in 2,460 of the 42,025 barangays in the country were postponed last October, primarily due to the delay in the delivery of election materials, blamed on lack of preparations due to moves from Congress to postpone the past barangay elections. Solons divided on postponement Lawmakers from Mindanao, however, have expressed opposing opinions on the proposal to postpone the ARMM polls. Balindong, author of HB 3542, said in that moving the ARMM polls give voters from the area "a much needed respite from the divisive effects of frequent political exercises." "Postponing the elections will give the region more time to pursue institution building that will help in lasting peace," he said during the hearing. Davao del Sur Rep. Marc Douglas Cagas, however, said the proposed postponement will "deprive people from ARMM the mandate to elect their officials." "We should not treat the ARMM elections as a toy that we can just hold or not hold when we want to," Cagas said. For his part, Sulu Rep. Tupay Loong, who chairs the House panel on Muslim affairs, said he wants to get assurance first from the government that the postponement "will open the door for the peace process." "To postpone elections, an extraordinary situation is needed, such as a threat to national security. If there is no guarantee from the government that the postponement will help the peace process, then there is no need to postpone the elections," he said. — RSJ, GMANews.TV