Ilocos execs’ reshuffle set after gun murders

By Mar T. Supnad

VIGAN CITY, Ilocos Sur- Top officers of the Commission on Election in the province will be reshuffled before the start of the election campaign.

This was revealed by Marino Salas, provincial Comelec supervisor, who said the reshuffle that he is going to implement, will be approved first by the Comelec en banc in Manila.

Salas did not mention the cause of the impending reshuffle but usually, the Comelec initiates reshuffling of its personnel before an election period to avoid partisanship from the incumbent elected officials and the new candidates.

Aside from this, one of the objectives of the reshuffle is to provide protection to the election officers who are under threat and being harassed by other politicians with vested interest.

There are 346,019 registered voters in the province’s 768 barangays but Salas said that the number had been reduced this last registration period but the Comelec will need a lesser number of teachers to be used with the clustering to be implemented by the Comelec.

During a recent conference held inside the provincial police headquarters of Ilocos Sur, presided over by Salas, Chief Supt. Constante D. Azares, Jr., Region 1 police director; Sr. Supt. Eduardo Dopale, Ilocos Sur police director, expressed optimism the coming election here will be generally peaceful despite what they called isolated cases ( of killing candidate for municipal councilor in Sta. Maria town).

Few days ago, another municipal councilor in Magingal town identified as Cecilio Tolentino, was also killed by unknown killers whom his allies called as politically motivated.

As of this writing, the killings of the two bets remained unsolved.

Authorities listed that 10 towns have been under close watch in Ilocos Sur due to intense political rivalry and the presence of armed goons being maintained by other politicians.

Col. Dopale informed Azares, however, that they might lower to only six the number of municipalities that are under area of concern since as of this no candidate has applied for additional security for themselves.

Azares reported during the same forum that a total of 50 persons have been arrested for carrying guns in violation of Comelec gun ban, saying a total of 50 guns have also been confiscated from them.