Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 9) — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is looking into reports of ballots and vote counting machines being destroyed in Binidayan, Lanao del Sur, wherein an individual was also allegedly killed in the incident.
“Alam na rin natin ‘yun. Ang ating regional director ng area sa BARMM, si Director Rey Sumalipao is on top of the situation,” said Comelec Commissioner George Garcia in a press briefing.
[Translation: We are already aware of that. Our regional director in the area in BARMM, Director Rey Sumalipao, is on top of the situation.]
“Pinapa-submit na namin siya ng report kaagad sa operations center upang malaman kung ano yung eksaktong nangyari na, allegedly pa lang ito, na may nasaksak na miyembro ng electoral board,” he added. “So yun ay pinapa-verify pa. Pero isang polling place lang.”
[Translation: We are already asking him to immediately submit a report to the operations center so we can know what exactly happened which allegedly resulted in one member of the electoral board being stabbed. We are still verifying it. But this only happened in one polling place.]
A video is circulating online in which a number of individuals are seen destroying ballot boxes and vote-counting machines in one polling center in Binidayan.
But Garcia said they also received a report that the voting went on in the same polling center following the incident.
“Tuloy-tuloy naman yung naging botohan dun after that incident,” he said.
[Translation: The voting went on after the incident.]
The Philippine National Police has so far recorded 16 confirmed election-related incidents as of May 8, which are way lower than the 60 incidents recorded in 2019 and 133 in 2016.
