The Standard - 2016 April 26 - Tuesday

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VOL. XXX NO. 73 3 Sections 32 Pages P18 TUESDAY : APRIL 26, 2016 www.thestandard.com.ph editorial@thestandard.com.ph

UNA hits Salceda claim on defectors

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2 CABINET EXECS, GOVERNOR SUED Kidapawan farmers file murder, other raps at Ombudsman

Lawmakers slam plot to steal vote overseas

By Florante S. Solmerin, John Paolo Bencito and Rio N. Araja

By Maricel V. Cruz and Sara Susanne Fabunan

FARMERS on Monday filed multiple complaints—including murder—against two Cabinet members, high-ranking government officials and more than 90 police and military personnel for the bloody dispersal of a protest in Kidapawan City on April 1.

LAWMAKERS voiced concern Monday over the alleged pattern of cheating favoring administration candidates discovered by some opposition candidates and voters who participated in overseas absentee voting. At the same time, Abakada party-list Rep. Jonathan de la Cruz, member of the independent minority bloc in the House, said he is filing a resolution in Congress to investigate the matter. He also wrote Commission on Elections Chairman Andres Bautista to address the issue. “These reports which have been widely circulated in both traditional and social media, if true, are definitely disturbing and a cause of great concern to us all,” De la Cruz said in his letter to Bautista. The irregularities include incomplete voters lists and a discrepancy between votes cast and votes posted, the letter said. “There are also reports that some embassy and consulate staff were caught on camera campaigning for Team Daang Matuwid and purportedly distributing Comelec materials which turned out to be for the RoxasRobredo team,” the letter added. De la Cruz said his group was gathering some of those materials for the information and appropriate action by the Comelec. De la Cruz said the discrepancies between the voter receipts and the votes actually posted in several instances of overseas absentee voting could be a precursor of more widespread fraud during the May 9 elections. Next page

Roxas: LP conducting pre-election loyalty check

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Lawsuit. Ebao Sulang, father of one of the farmers allegedly killed by a police dispersal unit in Kidapawan City last April 1, shows journalists a copy of the charge sheet.

“Charges of murder, frustrated and attempted murder, torture and physical injuries, illegal arrest and detention and other civil and political rights violations were filed by the farmer-complainants, including families of those who were shot during the dispersal, as well as the farmers who were illegally arrested and detained by the Philippine National Police,” said Cristina Palabay, secretary-general of the human rights group Karapatan. The respondents include Interior Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, Philippine National Police chief Ricardo Marquez, North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza and 94 local, police and military officials. The complainants urged the Ombudsman to place all the accused under a preventive suspension. Sarmiento said the government’s actions were defensible and that officials involved will be able to respond to all allegations hurled against them. “We stand ready to answer all allegations pertaining to the incident if and when required to do so,” Sarmiento said. He added that the Interior Department had already created two fact-finding panels to look into the circumstances behind the bloody April 1 dispersal. On April 1, police broke up a protest by a group of about 6,000 farmers who had blocked the CotabatoDavao highway to demand food Next page


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