ZAMBOANGA CITY, 31 May 2007 — As the political opposition yesterday stepped up charges of poll cheating in the southern Philippines, Muslim supporters of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in Maguindanao province threatened to stage protest rallies.

The opposition said yesterday it would present witnesses to bolster its fraud allegations in Mindanao, warning of a new political crisis if the government does not addresses their claims.

Amid fraud charges, the Commission on Election (Comelec) yesterday ordered a re-canvassing in Maguindanao.

Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. announced the poll body’s decision late in the day even as petitions have been filed to set aside the tabulation of votes in the province.

Maguindanao has more than 300,000 votes, enough to affect the 9th to 12th slots in the Senate race.

Maguindanao’s political leaders and their supporters said they were not going to take the fraud allegations sitting down.

“We are ready to go to the streets again if the opposition continues to accuse us Muslims of cheating in the polls,” warned Hashim Lisondra, a local leader of the ruling Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats coalition.

On Tuesday, More than 20,000 villagers from across the province rallied in Cotabato City to express their indignation against charges that no election was actually held in Maguindanao, which gave a 12-0 sweep to Arroyo’s Team Unity senatorial candidates in the May 14 midterm election.

Rally participants explained that they voted 12-0 against the opposition and independent candidates in line with the wishes of their local leaders. “We supported the government ticket all the way out of loyalty to our leaders and the president,” farmer Hakim Abubakar said.

Abubakar said his family voted straight for the TEAM Unity after the governor of the province, Andal Ampatuan, and his son, Zaldy, governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), appealed for their support.

Lisondra said their vote “was a vote of confidence to the datus and the knights in shining armor of the Lakas-CMD.”

Ustadz Farid Solaiman, chief of the ARMM Madaris Education Bureau, said the gathering of protesters at the provincial capitol was also a “tacit indication” of a strong belief by ethnic Maguindanaons to religious teachings espousing “obedience” to leaders.

“Of course, this political solidarity comes through the concept of shoura, or consultation among the people the datus lead,” he said.

Stereotyping

Organizers of the rally, which lasted for five hours, denounced what they described as “classic stereotyping” of the Moro voters in Maguindanao with allegations there was cheating in the province in favor of the Team Unity senatorial ticket during the May 14 polls.

All of Maguindanao’s 22 mayors, almost all of them virtually unopposed during the elections, joined the rally together with thousands of supporters.

“So immense was the show of support to us that if we allow all of our followers to come along, shops will close in the town centers, flow of traffic in the province will stop for the whole duration of the rally,” said Mayor Shamer Uy of Datu Piang, Maguindanao’s oldest town.

The elder Ampatuan, who is also chairman of the Lakas-CMD in Maguindanao, said he cannot understand why the opposition cannot accept the reality that as early as 2004, all of his constituent-mayors already declared the province as “GMA (Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) country” to project their patronage of Malacañang as a “center” of government power.

Ampatuan said that during the 2004 presidential and national elections, mayors in the province gave some 200,000 votes for Arroyo, with her closest rival, movie actor Fernando Poe, Jr., trailing far behind with only more than 60,000 votes.

Sulu’s newly elected governor, Sakur Tan, said the opposition should learn to accept defeat in Moro communities, which are known for a strong “block” voting tradition.

Tan and Tawi-Tawi Gov. Sadikul Sahali, both political allies of the Ampatuans, agreed that one reason for the overwhelming loss of the opposition senatorial candidates in many areas in the ARMM is the absence political leaders that openly campaigned for them.

“Campaigning for opposition senatorial candidates in the ARMM would be like selling costly water in sealed containers to the people dwelling in the surroundings of the vast Lake Lanao where water supply is free,” Tan said.

Destabilization

More than two weeks after the local and congressional elections, results are still being counted by hand in a tedious, tense process bogged down by accusations of vote-rigging on both sides. With more than 80 percent of 300,000 precincts counted, eight opposition candidates were leading in the race for the 12 Senate seats at stake, together with two administration and two independent aspirants.

President Arroyo’s allies have said they won most of the 220 districts in 81 provinces represented in the House of Representatives.

Malacañang, meanwhile, asked the Genuine Opposition to stop “destabilizing the emotions” of the people by depicting a scenario of political crisis.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Arroyo’s top aide, said that the opposition should just allow the Comelec to proceed with the canvassing of votes to determine the real winners. “Let Comelec finish its job. Let us not contribute to the destabilization of people’s emotions,” Ermita said.

He said he hoped that the canvassing would be over in a week’s time and that the winners could be proclaimed. Ermita said the opposition was trying to condition the mind of the public that should some TU candidates enter the top 12, this meant that the administration has resorted to fraud.

Failure of Elections

Reacting to the Comelec decision to recanvass the Maguindanao votes, lawyer Leila Delima of the opposition asked what certificates of canvass (COCs) would be counted since “we have not seen copies of the municipal CoCs, statement of votes, and election returns.”

“We don’t know what they are going to canvass,” she said.

Lawyer Sixto Brillantes also of the opposition said he wanted to see what would be canvassed before deciding on what steps to take.

“Effectively the motion to set aside Maguindanao was denied. It will be recanvassed but I don’t know what they will recanvass but they are not saying what is going to be recanvassed tomorrow (Thursday) because there are no municipal documents,” Brillantes said.

Team Unity lawyer Romulo Macalintal welcomed the decision of the Comelec, adding that there were no anomalies committed in the province.

“We welcome the decision of the Comelec to find out the truth to the allegations in Maguindanao,” Macalintal said.

“We just want to assure that we (Team Unity) never committed anomalous acts or any irregularity in connection with the elections in Maguindanao,” Macalintal said.

He stressed that the votes Team Unity had gotten from Maguindanao was due to a “valid electoral exercise.”

TEAM Unity also didn’t have copies of the election returns, he said.

But at the same time, Macalintal said he was open to special elections.

The Liberal Party, the recognized dominant minority party, will ask the Comelec this week to declare failure of elections in Maguindanao, an official said yesterday.

Aside from Maguindanao, LP Vice President Florencio Abad said they were also studying filing cases to either declare failure of elections or nullify certain municipal certificates of canvass in other areas in Mindanao like Lanao del Sur and Sultan Kudarat.

“Sen. (Franklin) Drilon is drafting the petition to declare failure of elections in Maguindanao. We will file it this week,” Abad said in a phone interview.

Drilon is president of LP.

“But we are also studying other areas where cheating were wide spread. We’re looking at others like Lanao del Sur and Sultan Kudarat,” Abad said.

Similar cases have also been filed at the Comelec by Genuine Opposition candidates Panfilo “Ping” Lacson and Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel following reports of a 12-0 victory by administration senatorial candidates in Maguindanao.

Abad said they would use also some opposition witnesses in their case.

Abad also said he was confident that its two partymates - reelectionist Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan and outgoing congressman Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III would no longer drop from the winning circle in the senatorial race.

Based on the latest Comelec tally, Pangilinan is fifth followed by Aquino.

“It wills no longer change, otherwise, sobra na yun (that is too much). Si Pimentel na lang talaga ang nanganganib (So far, it’s only Pimentel who is really in danger),” Abad said.

Based on the ongoing canvassing by the Comelec, Abalos said the race to get into the Magic 12, would be just among Pimentel, and administration candidates Juan Miguel Zubiri and Ralph Recto. (With input from Agencies & Inquirer News Service)