 |
ROSARIO, Agusan del Sur--The rival political camp of the mayor here reigned supreme in their proxy war in Monday’s village polls taking eight of 11 village chairs’ seats in the political exercise marred with massive vote buying activities.
Former vice mayor Julie Chua leader of the opposition group going against the bets of Mayor Jose Cuyos said eight, including him who ran and won at the Poblacion, easily trumped down their opponents with large margins in the vote-rich villages.
Cuyos’camp only
managed to lord it over in three villages including the village of Wasian where Eduardo de Paz, the president of the Association of Barangay Captains of this town, dumped his opponent with a huge 1,802 edge.
The election here in the villages is considered a proxy war among multi-millionaire small scale gold mining tunnel operators seen as a prelude to a hotly-contested fight in next year’s local elections between Cuyos and his new-found nemesis – mining operator Jupiter Abulog.
Most of the winners at the Abulog camp are incumbent reelectionists who jumped to the other side of the political fence believed to be fuelled by enticing huge logistical support that ranged from P200,000 up to P300,000 for each of them apart a higher bid in buying votes.
Residents said Abuyog camp has offered P2,000 for each voter which is a lot more higher to the offer of Cuyos’bets at P500.
The Abulog camp fetched small – scale miners living in far-flung areas with trucks on the eve of elections for them to be able to vote at the polling precincts in public schools.
Celso Genon, municipal election officer, admitted there was indeed massive vote buying in this town as they received at least seven complaints on fair election law violations that includes mobile video recording in the polling precincts showing cash were secretly seen exchanging hands.
A vendor selling bottled water outside the gates of a public school in Bayugan 3 village disclosed an Abulog supporter offered her P2,000 on the eve of election but she declined since the condition was for her to open the ballot at an onlooker outside the school room.
Genon said he noticed an unusual rise of voters at the precinct who were not able to vote since their names cannot be located in the list. As it turned out, many of these eager voters came from other areas and purposely came to Rosario after learning about huge amount of cash in exchange for their votes.
Cuyos elder brother, Reynaldo who is incumbent village chair of Bayugan 3 lost by a slim 400 votes against Michael Rhay Hambala, an incumbent village councilor in his early 20s.
Chua however clarified there was no vote buying on their part only that people came to them asking help for their transportation expenses and food. “We only helped them exercise their right to suffrage,” Chua said.
He said the Abulog family has been helping poor residents in any financial needs for so many years.
0 Comments