SULTAN KUDARAT, Maguindanao—Under tight watch from security forces, polls closed mid-afternoon on Monday in the historic plebiscite on whether or not to ratify the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) that will expand the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), with stakeholders observing a huge turnout of voters.
Hours before the polls closed, the chairman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Ebrahim Murad, assured Filipino Muslim voters his group would respect a vote of rejection for the BOL, which would give the legal stakes to establishing the new, expanded autonomous body in Mindanao. However, administration officials predicted a landslide win for the “yes” camp, which President Duterte bolstered with his presence at the weekend.
Fielding questions from reporters after he voted at 10:23 am in his hometown school precinct here, Murad said, “We are ready to accept if there’s a no vote.”
A negative vote in the plebiscite would scrap the BOL, which Congress passed last year after its predecessor, the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), failed to hurdle legal challenges.
Moving forward in case the “no” vote wins in the plebiscite ratifying the BOL, Murad told the media, “Then we will continue to strive that that agreement be implemented. But it is now the duty of the government to implement it,” he added, referring to the government’s peace agreement with the MILF.
The national government, including the regional and provincial leadership under the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), is confident, however, of a landslide win for a “yes” vote in this plebiscite, the third to be held since 1977, when then President Ferdinand Marcos created the regional government composed of Regions 9 (Western Mindanao) and 12 (Central Mindanao); and in 2001, which sought to expand the original autonomous territory covered by the ARMM.
In Monday’s plebiscite, political violence reared its ugly head again in Cotabato City, one of only two cities outside the ARMM areas to be included in the plebiscite. The other one is Isabela City, of Basilan, which belongs to the ARMM.
The Comelec placed Cotabato City under its control following a mall explosion on December 31 that killed two persons.
On Sunday night, a motorcycle rider lobbed two grenades at the residence of Judge Angelito Razalan in Santa Maria Street, Rosario Heights along Sinsuat Avenue.
In response, National Police chief Director General Oscar Albayalde ordered a stronger police presence in Cotabato City and other areas in Mindanao.
Razalan is the brother of Aniceto Razalan, current secretary of Cotabato City Mayor Cynthia Guiani Sayadi. The mayor is against the BOL.
Albayalde said that while they were not discounting the possibility of terrorism in the attack, its motive could have been unrelated to the plebiscite.
“If the objective is to create fear among the people, then the grenades should have been thrown into public places, but they lobbed them into the compound of the judge,” he said.
While no one was injured in that 9:10 pm explosion, police and the Army had yet to explain why the gunman escaped, and why would somebody mount such attack when the highest security alert was in place in a city already under Comelec control.
Aside from the Sunday night explosion, police said they also found another unexploded grenade in another business establishment downtown.
Mayor Sayadi complained about supposed MILF leaders who allegedly coerced “Christian voters.”
At least two poblacion Cotabato schools complained of rowdy watchers from the pros and cons camps. At the Cotabato City institute, one suspected flying voter was nearly mauled by voters when he was detected. He escaped unhurt.
At the Cotabato City Central Pilot School, four voters, including a female, were ganged up on by non-Cotabato City residents for still unknown reasons.
Several polling places opened late over security concerns.
Polling precincts opened on time in many areas of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, but in Cotabato City, long queues had formed several minutes before the scheduled opening of the school premises at 7:00 am. As of 7:27, a polling center along downtown Quezon Avenue had remained closed, as did the Sero Central Elementary School along Sinsuat Avenue.
Radio stations monitoring the plebiscite were still heard monitoring several precincts which remained closed to voters near 8:00 am.
In Sero Central Elementary School, election materials were delivered by Army-escorted vans at 7:15 am but the school did not open 30 minutes after.
Reports of vote-buying had surfaced days earlier when an alleged citizen arm asked voters to get identification in exchange for P200. But incidents of flying voters were still widespread, with the accusation levelled against the MILF.
It was less bloody though, with peaceful and orderly conduct reported from many areas in Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur.
Pullout
Former Armed Forces chief and current Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez had also asked the MILF to pull out the unarmed elements of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Force (Biaf) on Sunday night. Although the Army said the Biaf fighters were unarmed, government officials said their presence has created fear among residents.
On Monday, Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo M. Año assured the public that the government is ready to thwart any attempt to sabotage the plebiscite.
He said that while the plebiscite was a ticket to peace, it also posed “an opportunity for communist terrorists, extremists, and anti-BOL factions to sow violence and prevent the voting from happening. Thus, all hands are now on deck to ensure the peaceful and orderly conduct of the plebiscite.”
A combined force of 20,384 members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) were deployed to keep the peace.
Of this, around 10,000 were deployed to secure polling precincts while battalions of the PNP Special Action Force and those from PNP Calabarzon and Central Luzon were on standby for any eventuality.
PNP officers also helped substitute teachers serve as Board of Election Inspectors in one area where 100 teacher-inspectors did not show up reportedly after receiving threats by SMS.
The BOL once ratified will be key in replacing the ARMM with the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
The first BOL plebiscite will cover ARMM and the cities of Isabela and Cotabato; the second plebiscite on February 6 will focus on the provinces of Lanao del Norte and North Cotabato.
First exercise, expectations
Murad said this was his first time to exercise suffrage, as with the bulk of the followers and fighters of the MILF who he said had been waging war against the government “during the last 40 or 50 years (including their stint with the then monolithic Moro National Liberation Front of Nur Misuari).
“This would signify that it (MILF) it is now transforming the revolutionary process into a democratic process,” Murad told reporters, as he spoke at the gymnasium stage with several Maguindanao voters listening.
Murad was listed on the 88th slot as “Ebrahim, Ahod “Murad” Balawag” at Precint 140-B of Simuay Junction Central Elementary School. He said he wrote in English, “the international language”, when he answered in his ballot. The Comelec has allowed a yes or a no answer in the vernacular or local dialect.
“I see this as historic. We have been travelling for 50 years and it’s only now that we see the light at the end of the tunnel,” he added. “With this development, we can now address peace.”
After the plebiscite, Murad said he hoped the Bangsamoro Transition Authority would be immediately established “and start to organize our governance.”
Transparent
He vowed to make transparency as a policy, saying “this would make our people understand” what they would be doing. He said he would also be appealing for understanding “that real work would only come in 2022 when the budget would be done for the new BARMM.”
For now, the transition government administration will ride on the current budget of the ARMM.
He appealed also to donor countries and international donor agencies to continue helping them “and to maximize your help because our people would badly need them”.
With reports by Rene Acosta and Jonathan L. Mayuga
Image credits: Manuel T. Cayon