ILOILO CITY – Unlike other barangays in the country, nobody voted in the barangay elections in the island-barangay of Inampulugan, Sibunag, Guimaras on Monday, October 30.
SUNSET at Inampulugan Island in Sibunag town, Guimaras province. (Costa Aguada Island Resort)
“Pinasahi ni nga barangay (This barangay is very distinctive),” said Dennis Ausan, Commission on Elections (Comelec)-6 (Western Visayas) chief.
Comelec-Guimaras records showed there are 207 registered voters in Inampulugan.
But no one filed a Certificate of Candidacy for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections since Sibunag was created as a municipality in 1995.
“With no elections, Inampulugan remains to have no sitting barangay official,” Ausan said.
But Ausan said that Inampulugan residents do vote during local and national elections.
“During the synchronized national and local elections, Inampulugan is normal with a school that serves as a voting precinct and voters show up. But the residents never participated during barangay elections,” Ausan noted.
Residents of Western Visayas know Inampulugan as a private island and the location of posh Costa Aguada Island Resort.
Many residents of Guimaras have never been to the island due to distance.
Then President now Pampanga Rep. Gloria M. Arroyo and key Cabinet officials stayed in Inampalugan in August 2006 to monitor the government’s response mechanism to the Guimaras oil spill, considered as country’s worst oil spill disaster.