Task Force HOPE activated for Aug. 8 ARMM elections

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao — The Commission on Elections and the Department of National Defense (DND) have jointly activated Task Force HOPE (Honest, Orderly and Peaceful Elections) to guard so-called "areas of immediate concern" during the Aug. 8 polls in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Marine Brig. Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino, commander of the interim task force, said key police and military officials in the ARMM will meet today with Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos in Davao City to discuss poll-related security issues and concerns.

The ARMM covers Marawi City, Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, both in Central Mindanao, and the island-provinces of Sulu, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi.

Dolorfino said they are waiting for the DND guidelines for Task Force Hope.

Dolorfino heads the 2nd Marine Brigade based in Iligan City and the anti-crime Task Force Ranao covering the adjoining provinces of Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte.

Dolorfino said he is certain that the political leaders of the ARMM, which has more than a million registered voters, will cooperate with the Comelec in ensuring honest, peaceful and orderly elections.

"The common concern of all sectors in the region, after all, is honest, orderly and peaceful elections," Dolorfino told The STAR in a mobile phone interview.

Dolorfino said he will likely be in Maguindanao during the Aug. 8 ARMM polls to help the Comelec oversee security preparations in the entire province.

Key members of the inter-agency Regional Peace and Order Council, chaired by Gov. Parouk Hussin, said they are certain that the elections in the neighboring provinces of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur will be peaceful and clean since 90 percent of local officials there are supporting a common gubernatorial candidate, Zaldy Ampatuan of the administration’s Lakas-Christian, Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) party.

The regional Lakas-CMD chairman, Maguindanao Rep. Simeon Datumanong, has expressed support for Task Force HOPE.

"In Maguindanao, there is no fear of the elections getting problematic because 27 of the 28 mayors in the province support only one candidate for governor, the official candidate of Lakas-CMD," he said.

Datu Paglas Mayor Abubakar Paglas is the only Maguindanao mayor not supporting Ampatuan because his older brother, businessman Ibrahim "Toto" Paglas, is also running for governor under the banner of the Liberal Party.

In a statement published in local newspapers over the weekend, Governors Datu Andal Ampatuan of Maguindanao, Wahab Akbar of Basilan, Sadikul Sahali of Tawi-Tawi and Benjamin Loong of Sulu appealed to ARMM voters to exercise their right of suffrage on Aug. 8 and help the Comelec secure their polling precincts.

The four governors, who all belong to Lakas-CMD, said ensuring peaceful, honest and orderly elections in the ARMM is also one way of projecting to various Metro Manila groups attempting to unseat President Arroyo that the people in the autonomous region believe in her leadership.

"Insha-Allah (God willing), with the cooperation of all sectors in the region, everything will be in order during the Aug. 8 elections in the ARMM," said Dolorfino, himself a Muslim.

Dolorfino said one of the strategies of Task Force HOPE to prevent any election anomalies is to accelerate the tallying and canvassing of election returns from all of the region’s 100 towns.

Dolorfino said delays in the counting of election returns will only give unscrupulous persons enough time to tamper with the outcome of the political exercise in communities where they wield influence.