Thousands of ARMM teachers out to help conduct polls

COTABATO CITY --- Three public school teachers will help oversee each of the local electoral boards in all 2,490 barangays in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao on May 14.Lawyer Rasol Mitmug, Jr., regional secretary of the Department of Education-ARMM, said Thursday he has not received any request yet for relief of teachers from election duties due to security constraints. That implies that all is well for now, Mitmug said on Thursday morning.He said there is close coordination between DepEd-ARMM’s superintendents of schools in the provinces and the Commission on Elections.The autonomous region covers Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, both in mainland Mindanao, and the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.In a statement Wednesday, the Regional Police Office-ARMM said security has been tight since last week in towns where big clans are locked in deep-seated rivalries for control of vote-rich barangays. We in DepEd-ARMM are optimistic we shall have peaceful elections in all five provinces of the autonomous region, Mitmug said.Chief Superintendent Graciano Mijares of PRO-ARMM said Thursday personnel of the region’s five provincial police offices will secure the teachers tasked to serve in polling sites on May 14.No fewer than 6,000 teachers in the five ARMM provinces will function as members of the local electoral boards in the region’s 116 municipalities.Thousands more are to be deployed in polling centers to help administer the barangay and SK electoral exercises.ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman on Thursday reiterated his appeal to residents of the autonomous region to support Comelec’s security measures meant to forestall any election-related trouble in far-flung areas on Monday. Barangay governments are primary facets of governance, dealing with the communities in the barangays, the sectors that ought to benefit very well from whatever good tidings good governance may give them, Hataman said.Hataman, chairman of ARMM’s inter-agency regional peace and order council, said he has directed the PRO-ARMM to speedily build cases, in coordination with Comelec, against candidates and supporters caught violating election rules. The elections on May 14 must purely be an `all barangay residents’ affair,’ free from interference by traditional politicians and warlords whose hold to power comes from the muzzles of their firearms. We, as a community, must let barangay people vote freely for their favored candidates, Hataman said.Hataman said he is thankful to Armed Forces chief Gen. Carlito Galvez, Jr. for supporting the common election security thrusts of the ARMM government, the regional police and Comelec.