Elections in Makati generally peaceful

A generally peaceful election day was reported in the affluent city of Makati yesterday.

Both candidates for the top post of the city were extremely confident of victory even while some election-related anomalies were reported.

Former mayor Jejomar Binay said his confidence was "overflowing" because of the support he received from two of the country’s largest religious groups.

The highly influential Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) has gone all out for Binay by pledging a straight 22-0 vote in favor of Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) local candidates.

Binay also claimed that he had the support of the El Shaddai flock of Brother Mike Velarde who reportedly gave the PDP-Laban a 20-0 vote.

Both religious groups boast of a substantial membership, but INC support is considered more significant because of the guarantee of block voting by its members.

Binay pointed out that this was the first time the INC has supported a straight ticket for a single political party.

He also noted that the three Makati City candidates, Councilors Dean Barbers, Mark Joseph and Rico Puno, who were supported by the INC during the 1998 elections won in their respective districts.

Binay’s opponent, incumbent city vice mayor and action star Edu Manzano, for his part, downplayed the support of the INC for the PDP-Laban candidates.

He pointed out that even though he did not receive the support of the INC in 1998, he still managed to secure a convincing victory over his opponent.

"This only shows that it’s still up to the people to decide. We cannot say that any one block dominates the elections," Manzano said.

On Binay’s claim of the El Shaddai support, Manzano said that Brother Mike himself has announced that he would not endorse any candidate.

"I don’t know where Jojo gets his information. But it’s nice to know that he knows something that apparently Brother Mike does not," said Manzano.

Both the PDP-Laban and the Lakas-NUCD-UMDP party of Manzano have accused each other of engaging in activities considered illegal under the Omnibus Election Code.

As early as Sunday morning, the Makati police reported incidents of vote buying. Superintendent Jovito Gutierrez, chief of police of Makati, reported that sample ballots carrying the name of councilor Jun Jun Binay and the PDP-Laban ticket were being distributed with fake P50 bills attached to them.

Binay said that these obviously propaganda materials were being circulated by their opponents to discredit the PDP-Laban Party.

PDP-Laban insiders also reported massive vote buying last Sunday night by the Lakas-NUCD-UMDP as well as by the camp of district one congressional candidate Armida Siguion-Reyna.

An average of P200 was reportedly being distributed to the voters from various barangays who eagerly queued up in long lines.

Manzano reacted to these reports by saying that the Lakas-NUCD-UMDP does not have the budget to undertake the reported vote buying.

He added that the same 50 peso bills were also recovered from the rallyists who were arrested during the May 1 incident at Mendiola.

Manzano presented a sample of the fake P50 bill which he said were distributed mostly to the young residents of the city.

Manzano also claimed that their poll watchers were not allowed to go near the polling areas in some barangays such as Bel-Air, apparently because of the area’s strong support for Binay.

A press release was also received by The STAR allegedly from the Lakas-NUCD-UMDP camp regarding anomalies in the distribution of election return forms and official ballots.

The release claimed that the City Treasurer’s office of Makati City refused to furnish authorized representatives of the Lakas-People Power Coalition, with the serial numbers of official ballots and election return forms distributed to precincts and polling places.

Manzano denied that the release was from the Lakas-NUCD-UMDP camp because of the absence of its official letterhead.

He added that their members reported no problems encountered about the said issue. However, Joseph said that there was such an incident involving the treasurer’s office but denied that the release came from him.

Binay, in reaction, disclosed that invitations were sent out by the City Treasurer’s Office for candidates to observe the distribution of ballots. He added that the invitation were even hand-carried to each of the candidates of the city.

Inspite of all the anomalies, Manzano remained confident that he and his party mates would win the elections.