Islamic City of Marawi (15 October) -- The army's 103rd Infantry (Haribon) Brigade headed by Brigadier General Rey Ardo recommended that the police should be the one to serve as Board of Election Tellers (BETs) in some towns of Lanao del Sur to ensure the peaceful and orderly conduct of Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) Elections come October 25, 2010.
The recommendation was made during the recent provincial peace and order council (PPOC) meeting where election-related issues and concerns were tackled by the council.
The military report disclosed that the BETs in the towns of Butig, Sultan Dumalondong, Lumbac-Unayan, Marogong and Tugaya should come from the Philippine National Police (PNP) to avoid failure of elections in these areas.
Public school teachers in these towns allegedly inhibited and refused to serve as BETs because of threats and fear.
The Haribon brigade further stressed the need to train reserve BETs and to discuss the important role of election officers (EOs) to address the causes of failure of elections in this part of the country.
It can be recalled that more than 200 out of the 1,157 barangays in the province failed to conduct elections in the past because of lack of qualified BETs and non-appearance of EOs on the day of elections.
In a related development, PNP Provincial Director Police Superintendent Cosanie Derogongan announced that they will again convene a meeting on October 20 and come-up with an honest-to-goodness assessment on the issue of public school teachers' unwillingness to serve as BETs.
He said the objective of the meeting is to determine the number of barangays that will be lacking BETs.
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