Umali: Remove Nueva Ecija from election 'hot spots' list

CABANATUAN CITY – Gov. Aurelio Umali urged the Commission on Elections to remove Nueva Ecija from the list of election “hot spots” in the 2013 elections owing to relatively stable peace and order situation in the province.

In a press briefing, Umali said Nueva Ecija now enjoys a stable peace and order climate and Novo Ecijanos can now speak freely and openly irrespective of their party affiliations and loyalty.

“The local media can vouch for that. They are now very open. In fact, some of them have been slapped with libel cases for exercising their freedom of the press,” he said.

A place is categorized as a hot spot where there is intense political rivalry and the presence of armed goons and violence.

Umali however said no less than the Comelec recognized the peaceful conduct of the local polls in the province with no reports of the usual pre- and post-election violence which characterized previous political exercises.

“For the longest time, we were tagged as an election hot spot. We were number one in Central Luzon until Abra came along. But in the last elections, we were able to show that there was no untoward incident and hopefully, the Comelec will take the cue and remove us from the list,” he said.

Umali said he asked the Comelec to place the province under Comelec control when he first ran for governor in 2007, “to deliver the message that we need to have peaceful and orderly elections in 2010 so we can change Nueva Ecija and that’s what exactly happened.”

He said he even instructed the Philippine National Police to provide area security to his political rivals during the campaign period to avert any occurrence of violence.

“I was fully aware that if something untoward happened to them, people might pin the blame on me so it’s better to take precautions,” he added.

Vice Gov. Jose Gay Padiernos welcomed Umali’s call for the Comelec to remove Nueva Ecija from the hot spot list, saying the political landscape in the province has changed considerably.

He said that before, there was a time when none of the local politicians would want to be a leader for Umali but they have since maintained an open mind and they now gravitate towards to the new leadership in the Capitol.

“Of course, there are still incidents of killings but these are no longer politically motivated,” he said. – MG