In Matuguinao, Samar
TACLOBAN CITY – Out of the 20 villages in Matuguinao, Samar, only one village is to be contested relative to the October 30 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections.
It was learned that the challenger of the incumbent chairman of Barangay San Roque, Santos Verano, is said to have a family member reportedly to be a member of the New People’s Army (NPA).
Verano, meantime, has a son who is a soldier.
Earlier, Mayor Aran Boller met with aspirants running for the village elections to have their own common candidates and ensure that the NPA could not put up their own candidates.
Matuguinao, a remote town in Samar’s first congressional district, continues to battle with communist insurgents with Mayor Boller at the forefront in the fight against the outlawed armed group.
“Out of 20 villages, one la an may kontra, nadire gud an NPA san kamurayaw,” Mayor Boller said in a message.
The town mayor has asked assistance from the Army to help them secure the conduct of the barangay and SK elections.
“I have made a request to our soldiers to help us guard the conduct of the barangay elections in our town so that the NPA could not disrupt the elections,” Boller said.
As this developed, Samar Police Provincial Office Provincial Director PCol Peter Limbauan said that despite practically the outcome of the barangay and SK elections in the town is now known, they would still deploy additional troops to make sure that the conduct would still be peaceful and orderly.
“There is a security threat in the area, so we might as well deploy but we will focus the number of our personnel in other barangays where there could be some problem,” Limbauan said.
The police official said that they could not yet identify barangays that could be considered as areas of concern relative to the barangay balloting.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)
