Year-ender: : Bossi kidnapping and local elections top Sibugay stories

AT THE START, 2007 appeared to be a peaceful year for Zamboanga Sibugay. It turned out to be eventful.

Everything went well even up to the rundown of May elections as the campaign trails were marked with traditional politics of “guns, goons, and gold”.

Two top stories hugged the headlines, domestically and internationally.

Dirty, dirty elections

Electoral frauds --- especially during the voting and counting of votes --- marred the conduct of 2007 local elections in the province.

In the capital town of Ipil, the “losing” mayoralty candidate filed an election protest before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) right after the proclamation of the winner.

Mayoralty candidate Jose Abalde together with his Vice Mayoraly candidate Susing Tiu asked the Comelec to annul the proclamation of Atty. Eldwin Alibutdan as new mayor saying there were widespread fraud and irregularities before and during the conduct of elections.

In their sworn statements, Abalde and Tiu alleged that Alibutdan cheated the elections through vote-buying, vote-padding and shaving, multiple registration of voters and use of flying voters.

However, the Comelec en banc junked the petition.

In its decision last August, the Comelec said the complaint lacks merits because it failed to establish that the Certificates of Canvass (CoC) were made under dubious circumstances. But it did not rule whether or not the allegations of massive vote-buying, vote-padding and –shaving, multiple registration of voters, and use of flying voters were true.

Province-wide, Partylist groups Bayan Muna (People First), Suara Bangsamoro, and Anak Pawis (Sons of Toiling Masses) included Zamboanga Sibugay in their petition before the Comelec as one of the provinces in Mindanao where elections failed due to massive frauds.

In Tungawan town, according to the petition, the total number of votes of Suara was reduced to 2,000 instead of 4,000. Other partylist groups that are identified with the Arroyo government like CoopNatcco and Movement Against Drugs (MAD) were favored by padding their votes, Bayan Muna and its allied groups alleged.

But again the Comelec junked the petition.

The same had happened during the conduct of barangay elections.

One barangay of Talusan town was included in the list of barangays nationwide where there was failure of elections after its town hall was bombed by unidentified suspects.

Bossi kidnapping

A month after the conduct of 2007 elections, Italian missionary Fr. Giancarlo Bossi, 57, was abducted by an armed group on his way to say mass in a remote village of Payao town.

The suspects were later identified by the military and police authorities as the rogue members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The MILF, however, strongly denied that its members were behind the kidnapping of Fr. Bossi.

Bossi was released by his kidnappers in Karomatan town after successful negotiations and paying “board and lodging”. Police authorities later retracted their statements that a “certain amount” was being paid to the kidnappers in exchange for the release of the Italian priest.

No news is good news?

The illegal numbers game called locally as suertres and illegal drugs continue to be unabated. And corruption at all levels of government remains unchecked.

Killings and assassinations victimizing well-known personalities and as well as small people remains a problem. The most recent of which was the killing of former Ipil Councilor Nestor Natividad during the third quarter of the year. Natividad’s killing is still unsolved.
These were among the other events in Zambonga Sibugay eclipsed by the stories of Bossi and local elections for 2007.#