By Armando Fenequito Jr.
DAVAO CITY - The Province of Compostela Valley will soon have its new name after majority of its constituents agreed to ratify Republic Act 11297 renaming it to Davao de Oro.
Final plebiscite results last December 7, 2019 ( Davao De Oro / Facebook / MANILA BULLETIN)
In a plebiscite last December 7, residents of the valley overwhelmingly gave their nod to the new name, with “Yes” votes garnering a total of 174,442 while the “No” votes tallied 5,020.
Commission on Elections (Comelec) 11 regional director C, who also acted as the chairman of the Provincial Board of Canvassers, made the announcement at the Sangguniang Panlalawigan Session Hall, around 10 p.m. of December 8. This was after all the election returns from the 11 towns were counted.
During the proclamation, Tambuang said the plebiscite recorded a 43.86 percent voting turnout from the 410, 261 total number of voters in the province.
However, the official said the low turnout will not affect the result of the plebiscite since the law stated this would only need a simple majority.
He said the possible reason why there were only few people who went out and vote was, they already know the result already.
Meanwhile, the Compostela Valley Police Provincial Police Office (CVPPO) declared that the conduct of plebiscite was generally peaceful.
Police provincial director Col. Joselito Loriza said there was no major untoward incident in connection to the plebiscite, from the start of the election period last November 7 up to the present day.
Loriza said the police only arrested four people who violated the election gun ban implemented by Comelec Region 11.