Motorboat carrying VCM capsizes off Samar

MANILA, Philippines — A motorized boat carrying five Army personnel, two Commission on Elections (Comelec) personnel and a vote counting machine (VCM) capsized in Samar last Sunday, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) reported.

In a statement, the PCG yesterday said that they rescued the Army and Comelec personnel who were transporting one VCM unit bound for the Darajuay Islands in Samar.

PCG spokesman Captain Armand Balilo said rough sea conditions in the area caused the motorized boat to tilt to one side and the vessel later capsized.

Balilo said coast guard vessel BRP Nueva Vizcaya was about to deliver election paraphernalia to another area when they received a distress call that a motorized boat sank off the remote island of Darajuay last Sunday. 

The Nueva Vizcaya responded and came to the rescue.

The survivors were brought to the shoreline of Barangay Guinsorongan, Catbalogan City. 

Stampede

Ten persons, mostly elderly voters, were hurt in a stampede that broke out yesterday at a polling center in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi, according to police.

Police Lt. Col. Joe Marie Occeño, officer-in-charge of the Police Provincial Mobile Force Company (PMFC), said the incident occurred about 11:30 a.m. at the polling center in the public school in Barangay Lamion.

Investigation disclosed that more than 5,000 voters reportedly gathered near the precinct when the footbridge linking the school to the main island shook and was about to collapse, prompting the voters to scamper for safety, Occeño said.

Comelec provincial officer Roberto dela Peña said voting resumed smoothly despite the stampede and some technical glitches in the vote-counting machines.

Meanwhile, voting was also delayed in many areas in Basilan when 134 machines malfunctioned.

Basilan provincial election supervisor Muamar Guyo said the glitches caused the delay and in the process voters were jam-packed in the polling centers.

The Comelec, police and military officers, however, described the election in Basilan as peaceful. – With Roel Pareño