By Ben Rosario Responding to President Rodrigo Duterte’s call for clean and honest elections, retired AFP and PNP officers called on the chief executive to stop massive vote-buying in Lanao del Sur and the devastated Marawi City, allegedly by a group of candidates seeking key local government positions. A similar appeal was sent to Malacanang by Lanao del Sur lawyer Salic Dumarpa and nearly 700 Lanao del Sur voters who executed affidavits to back similar allegations made by former military and police officers. The concerned Maranao voters also called on Duterte to support their bid to place Lanao del Sur and Marawi City under the control of the Commission on Elections, saying that massive vote buying, intimidation, coercion of voters and threat could subvert the results of the May 13, 2019 elections. In a letter sent to the Presidential Complaint Center on Monday, the Lanao Military and Police Retirees Reform Movement said the vote-buying scheme was set into motion by several candidates for provincial positions who connived with mayors, who in turn tapped the services of barangay chairpersons to distribute the money to voters. Signatories of the complaint letter included retired Col. Pangalawan D. Ampatuan and Col. Linog M. Bagul, both retired police officers and retired Army Col. Mastura D. Lao. Dumarpa, former commissioner of the National Labor Relations Commission, explained that the entire operation to subvert the will of the people of Lanao del Sur covered “vote buying, coercion and intimidation.” The former government official told Duterte that 675 affidavits from voters in nine towns of Lanao del Sur showed the electoral process in the province has been compromised, adding that he has secured 122 affidavits from Wao, 232 from Pualas, 100 from Piagapo, 88 from Pagayawan, 55 from Calanogas. 44 from Lumbaca Unayan, 31 from Saguiaran, one from Maguing and two from Poona Bayabao, for a total of 675. In a separate appeal, AFP and PNP retirees informed Duterte that five candidates combined their money to pay up to P6,000 per voter in Marawi City, Wao and other municipalities. According to Dumarpa, the money for vote buying was pooled by contributions of Mamintal Adiong Jr., who is running for governor (P500 per voter),vice gubernatorial candidate Mujam Adiong (P500), congressional candidate Ansarrodin Adiong (P1,000), Marawi mayoralty bet Majul Gandamra (P3,000) and Anoar Rumoros, a vice mayoralty aspirant (P1,000.) Dumarpa enclosed in his separate letter to the President pictures of sample ballots bearing the names of the five candidates and the money attached to them. In Wao, the voters were given colored claim cards showing the pictures and desired position of the favored candidates, along with an extract of the voter’s data from the Commission on Elections (Comelec.) These, Dumarpa explained, are needed for the voters to withdraw the P6,000 bribe from the distributors, all of them barangay chairpersons. “The foregoing facts and circumstances have explicitly demonstrated that there are sufficient grounds for the declaration of failure of elections in the entire province,” the retirees told Duterte. “Your fears that dirty politicians will destroy the sanctity and credibility of the elections through massive vote-buying is now happening in the province of Lanao del Sur and in Marawi City,” Dumarpa told the President. “The foregoing electoral fraud is not isolated because it is also occurring in the municipalities identified and represented by those who signed the letter,” Dumarpa said. Dumarpa said that a package of money, ranging from P2,000 to P10,000, is being used to buy votes in other municipalities. “In the province, the channels for Adiong's money are the municipal mayors (who add their own vote-buying money) and, who in turn, hired the barangay chairmen for the distribution of the package vote-buying money,” Dumarpa said. He said they have evidence to prove their claim. Like the retired military and police officers, Dumarpa and his group likewise called on the President to make good his pledge to declare a failure of elections in areas where vote-buying has occurred before the May 13, 2019 elections. `Let Lanao del Sur and Marawi City be the pilot areas for clean and orderly election, the Dumarpa group appealed.'