Poll body proclaims re-elected Sulu governor

Re-elected governor of Sulu province Hajji Sakur Tan embraces his wife Hajja Nurunisah Tan after lawyer Vidzfar Julie of the Commission on Elections on Saturday night, May 15, 2010 proclaimed the politician as winner in the May 10 local and national elections. (Mindanao Examiner Photo)

SULU, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / May 16, 2010) – Philippine elections officials have proclaimed influential politician Sakur Tan, who was re-elected as governor of Sulu, one of five provinces under the Muslim autonomous region in Mindanao.

Lawyer Vidzfar Julie, the local head of the Commission on Elections, on Saturday night, declared Tan as the winner in the May 10 general elections. “The governor has won the elections,” he told reporters.

Tan, a philanthropist, won more than 24,000 votes over Sulu Rep. Munir Arbison and former Moro rebel leader Nur Misuari. Tan vowed to continue peace and development efforts in the province where security forces are fighting militants linked to the al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya, blamed for the spate of terrorism in the southern region.

“We will continue what we had begun and our priority remains the same – peace and development and progress for the province of Sulu and its people,” Tan said, adding, the critical role of different sectors and the cooperation of the public are important in achieving peace and progress in Sulu.

Various sectors and civil society groups in the province have thrown their support to Tan and pledged to continue supporting his benevolent policies.

Tan won the polls despite attempts by his political foes to cheat him by bribing voters and intimidating them in some areas in the province.

Tan praised the Commission on Elections and the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines for the peaceful and orderly conduct of elections in Sulu. “We are commending the Commission on Elections and our Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines for maintaining peace and order during Monday’s elections,” he said.

Brigadier General Rustico Guerrero, commander of military forces in Sulu, largely credited the cooperation of the public and the different sectors to the peaceful elections.

“The credit goes to the different sectors and the public. There was a strong cooperation from all sectors and the people of Sulu for peaceful and orderly conduct of the elections,” Guerrero said.

Police also said the peaceful elections were due to long security planning and cooperation of local politicians who signed a peace covenant even before the polls had began. “The peace covenant signed by the local politicians and their cooperation led to the peaceful elections in Sulu,” said Senior Superintendent Joseph Ramac, commander of a special police task force which covered the provinces of Sulu, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi during the polls. (Mindanao Examiner)

COMELEC uncovers spurious names in recall petition Vs. Sulu governor

SULU, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 11, 2008) – The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) has uncovered thousands of spurious names from the list of those who signed the recall petition against Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan.

Tan’s political opponents have filed a petition with the COMELEC to unseat him, citing the loss of confidence in his leadership.

Lawyer Vidzfar Julie, the COMELEC’S deputy regional chief, said they will have to carefully verify the signatures in the recall petition to ensure they are authentic and had voted in last year’s elections in Sulu after they have uncovered 6,800 spurious names in the recall petition.

“These names and signatures in the recall petition are not even registered in Sulu,” Julie told the Mindanao Examiner.

He said the names had been stricken out of the petition papers. “The COMELEC will have to verify all the signatures in the recall petition to determine whether they are authentic or not or whether all those who signed the petition are really registered voters of Sulu,” Julie said.

Ali Judah, a resident of Lugus, an island town off Sulu, accused Tan of failing to improve the peace and order situation in the province.

He blamed Tan for the kidnapping of ABS-CBN television reporter Ces Dillon and three others early this year. The trio secretly went to the Abu Sayyaf to interview one of its leaders, Radulan Sahiron, but were eventually held and released weeks later after paying huge ransom.

Judah, in his 26-page petition, said that Tan failed to deliver basic government services to residents and accused the politician of terminating livelihood programs of past administration under defeated governor Benjamin Loong.

It was unknown who funded Jilah's petition, but the local poll office said 62,631 alleged voters from Sulu's 19 towns had signed the recall papers on August 29.

Little was known about Judah, but he was able to hire the services of a battery of prominent lawyers in Manila to pursue the petition. Judah is believed being used by Tan’s political detractors.

Jose Melo, the COMELEC Chairman, earlier said that it has no more funding to finance any recall petitions and that those who are pursuing it should put up the money or ask the government to release the fund.

Julie said at least P50 million are needed by the COMELEC to proceed with the recall petition in Sulu.

Money is overflowing in Sulu allegedly to bribe local officials in supporting the recall petition against Tan. Even journalists were reportedly being paid to destroy Tan’s political reputation, but others rejected the bribe, according to sources in Sulu, but this could not be independently confirmed.

The petition against Tan started after he and provincial lawmakers rejected last year a proposal by some politicians, who are now in their last term, to divide Sulu into two provinces so they can again run in 2010 elections.

Political dynasties are rampant in Sulu province, where many politicians win by either by fraud or cheating and vote-buying. The petition also is believed connected with Tan's order to the police and military authorities to disband private armies of politicians who are known warlords in Sulu.

Tan, who won by a landslide against Loong and former rebel leader Nur Misuari, last year, also ordered authorities to put a stop to the smuggling of contraband and illegal weapons into the province, many of which fall into the hands of rebels and armed goons of politicians.

He also introduced drastic reforms to fight corruption and ordered the Commission on Audit to regularly examine records or financial accounts of government projects to check their accuracy.

Muslim and Christian religious organizations and various civil society groups, including the business groups and chambers in Sulu have thrown their support behind Tan. They also signed petitions and manifestos supporting Tan’s administration.

Professor Fred Concepcion, one of Tan’s executive assistant, earlier said the governor is not disturb by the recall petition because it was all without basis and that Sulu's peace and order and economic stability have drastically improved under the new administration.

He said since Tan assumed office last year he has already completed many infrastructure and housing projects and various community and sustainable livelihood and agricultural programs.

“These are continuing projects aimed at sustaining our gains for the benefit of the people of Sulu,” Concepcion said.

Tan’s detractors accused him of terminating Loong's “Arms to Farms” program, which provides farmers in Sulu various agricultural support. But the program was not of Loong and had been developed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to assist former Muslim rebels’ transition into peaceful, civilian lives.

However, the program was used as campaign propaganda in the past elections.Besides Tan, a recall petition was also started by political opponents of Pampanga Gov. Ed Panlilio, who is also fighting corruption and illegal gambling activities in his province. (Mindanao Examiner)

Poll Officer's House Bombed In South RP

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Dec. 13, 2007) – A homemade bomb exploded in front of the house of a regional elections official in the southern Philippine province of Sulu, but the attack had killed no one, police and military said on Thursday.

It said the bombing came just two days ahead of special village and youth elections in Sulu and seven other provinces in Mindanao.

The attack before dawn targeted the house of lawyer Vidzfar Julie in the town of Indanan. No one was killed or injured in the blast that damaged the facade of the house.

No group or individual claimed responsibility for the bombing, but authorities suspect the blast had something to do with special elections on Saturday.

Julie was not in the province at the time of the attack, police said.

But the blast was the second in recent week in the province. A bomb was also detonated December 9 in front of the office of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) in Sulu’s Patikul town.

Julie, a former poll supervisor in Sulu, is now the chief of the COMELEC in the Muslim autonomous region.

Elections in May failed in some towns in Sulu because of the presence of gunmen and many teachers tapped as poll officers did not report for work due to threats to their lives.

Others refused to work because of non-payments of their salaries since early this year by the Department of Education in the autonomous region. (Mindanao Examiner)