VOL. XXX NO. 86 3 Sections 32 Pages P18 MONDAY : MAY 9, 2016 www.thestandard.com.ph editorial@thestandard.com.ph
Comelec: We’re ready 100%
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ALARM RAISED ON BUYING, CHEATING TENS of thousands of security forces fanned out across the country Sunday on the eve of national polls, following a bitter and deadly election campaign plagued by rampant vote-buying and intimidation.
Frontrunner. Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. acknowledges cheers during a miting de avance on Saturday.
“Vote-buying is everywhere,” Commission on Elections [Comelec] Commissioner Luie Guia told reporters. “We are receiving reports that everything is being used to buy votes, not only money. It could be [plastic] basins, groceries.” In just one instance, political operators and some candidates in a Bohol town went from house to house distributing cash or groceries, he said. To try to check vote buying, the election commission has banned
mobile phones in polling places. This is so people cannot photograph their ballots to prove to vote-buyers that they cast their ballots for the right candidates. At the national level, presidential and vice presidential rivals are also accusing each other of trying to rig the elections. President Benigno Aquino III has warned the favorite to succeed him, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, is a dictator in the making and will bring terror to the nation. Duterte has in turn accused
Aquino’s administration of planning “massive cheating” to ensure that his preferred successor, former Interior secretary Manuel Roxas II, wins. Followers of Duterte, who has admitted links to vigilante death squads in Davao that rights groups say have killed more than 1,000 people, have warned of a “revolution” if he loses. Meanwhile, at least 15 people have died in election-related violence, according to national police statistics. In the latest suspected case, a grenade blast killed a nine-yearold girl behind the house of a powerful political warlord in the strifetorn province of Maguindanao late on Saturday, said Chief Inspector Jonathan del Rosario. Next page
Rody tells supporters to choose Romualdez By Rio N. Araja
One last check. A teacher who will be acting as an election officer inspects voting machines inside a school on Sunday ahead of the presidential election in Manila on May 8, 2016. Tens of thousands of security forces fanned out across the Philippines on May 8 on the eve of national polls, following a bitter and deadly election campaign plagued by rampant vote-buying and intimidation. AFP
PRESIDENTIAL frontrunner Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte urged his supporters Saturday night to vote for senatorial candidate Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, saying he would strengthen the fight for reforms and bring compassion or malasakit back to public service. At his miting de avance at Luneta Park in Manila, Duterte urged voters to trust those with proven accomplishments rather than candidates who merely make promises. “He [Romualdez] has compassion for the people and is a committed public servant in pushing reforms,” Duterte said. Duterte said he adopted Romualdez, head of the independent minority bloc in the House, as a guest senatorial candidate because they shared similar platforms to ensure peace and order, curb corruption and red tape, offering free college education, improving health services for the poor, creating better job opportunities and delivering efficient public and social services. Romualdez reiterated his plan to push in-city resettlement through decent and affordable Next page