DAVAO CITY – Just like in previous elections, recurring problem such as alleged vote-buying, harassment against election officers, and other election-related violence were still prevalent in many parts of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao on May 12.
Recurring election problems recorded in BARMM
Published May 14, 2025 02:12 pm
In a briefer released by the Cotabato City-based Independent Election Monitoring Center, 24 election-related violence were recorded, mostly in the province of Maguindanao del Sur.
SOLDIERS deployed in Maguindanao del Sur. (6th Infantry Division photo)
Among these incidents were in Buluan town where military personnel arrested a group of men for carrying high-powered firearms.
According to the IEMC, they reportedly attempted to usher in more than 50 men alleged to be flying voters.
The Police Regional Office-BARMM confirmed that joint police and military forces intercepted 64 individuals believed to be flying voters.
Authorities confiscated firearms and grenades.
The IEMC also noted that brawls, several indiscriminate firing incidents, and harassment were reported in different parts of Maguindanao del Sur.
Lawyer Benedicto Bacani, executive director of the Institute for Autonomy and Governance, said that they have observed a shortage of election officers who could respond to a vast number of incidents during Election Day.
Bacani added that it was difficult to reach out to election officers because they may have been preoccupied by the number of election-related incidents.
In Cotabato City, the IEMC documented that police officers arrested a group of men after they were caught carrying metal bats and intimidating some residents.
A riot erupted between rival groups involving more than 40 men in Rosary Heights 5 in Cotabato City.
Two persons were killed in a shooting incident in Bayang, Lanao del Sur, including a municipal council candidate.
IEMC blamed the election-related violence on the unresolved issue of loose firearms and organized armed groups that may have enabled many accounts of unrest and intimidation of voters and poll workers even before Election Day.
It added that violence was propagated by attackers who feel disadvantaged in their bailiwick areas.
The group said that intimidation was not through firearms but more on the show of force in numbers and their strong presence by assembling in polling centers and the vicinity.
“We note in particular the delay in the opening of voting in Datu Odin Sinsuat where a mob led by a candidate for vice mayor stopped the delivery of election paraphernalia,” the IEMC said.
Even as Datu Odin Sinsuat is under the control of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), the IEMC said the mob succeeded in delaying the opening of the polling centers by half a day.
Photos and videos of brawls in different parts of Maguindanao del Sur and Lanao del Sur circulated in social media on Monday.
Even with the presence of police and military personnel,
supporters of political groups engaged in fistfights and disrupted voting in the schools.
The IEMC disclosed that some indigenous peoples in Maguindanao del Sur, especially in the mountains town of South Upi, abstained from voting due to reported firefights.
Vote-buying
Like in the past elections, the IEMC noted that vote-buying and selling were pervasive.
It reported that authorities arrested a man in possession of named coupons allegedly for distribution of “ayuda” or assistance on Election Day in Talitay, Maguindanao del Sur.
The IEMC bared that some voters in Parang, Maguindanao del Norte received claim stubs that can be converted to P5,000 after casting their votes.
The IEMC urged the Comelec and security sector to “proactively accost individuals and disband groups who are not voters or authorized, whose presence and conduct in and around the polling centers are creating a climate of fear and intimidation to the voters in
exercising their right to suffrage.”
“There is a need to develop reforms in the rules to counter the dominance of money and fear politics that subvert the will of the electorate,” it added.
The IEMC is a collaborative initiative led by several organizations such as Institute for Autonomy and Governance, National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections, Notre Dame University, Notre Dame Broadcasting Corp., Climate and Conflict Action Asia, Coalition for Social Accountability and Transparency, and Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting.