ARMM poll chief excluded from those authorized to lower canvassing threshold

The election director of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) was not among those authorized to lower the canvassing threshold in the local level following Monday's midterm elections.

According to supplemental Resolution No. 9700-A, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) gives its chairman the authority to "approve the request for the lowering of threshold" in ARMM.

"In the case of the Regional Board of Canvassers of the ARMM, the chairman of the commission is hereby authorized to approve the request, if any, for the lowering of the threshold coming from said board," the supplemental resolution read.

Resolution No. 9700 gives regional election directors the authority to lower the canvassing threshold to allow the proclamation of local candidates even if not all the results have been transmitted and received.

Poll fraud

Incidentally, ARMM's election director, Rey Sumalipao, has been implicated in the alleged poll fraud in the 2004 presidential election, although Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said this has nothing to do with their decision.

"Walang connection. We have to go through kasi sa ARMM special proclamation 'yan, hindi kapareho nung regular," he said in a chance interview Tuesday.

ARMM elections used to be separate from the national and local elections until this year.

"Kasi iba 'yun. Special elections 'yung sa ARMM. Ngayon lang na-synchronize. Dati nakahiwalay," Brillantes said.

Logical

Reached for comment, Sumalipao said it is "logical” that the lowering of the threshold will be approved by someone higher than him in the Comelec.

"How can I approve my own request?" he said, as he once again denied involvement in poll fraud in the past.

"Wala, wala na akong pakialam d'yan," Sumalipao said.

Sumalipao was implicated in the infamous "Garci Scandal" involving the supposedly wire-tapped phone conversation of former poll commissioner Virgilio Garcillano and former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo where the two allegedly discussed rigging the 2004 elections to favor certain candidates allied with Arroyo.

In one of the wire-tapped conversation, Garcillano supposedly talked with a certain “Ray," who was later confirmed as Sumalipao.

Sumalipao had said that there was no mention of any poll rigging in their conversation. — KBK, GMA News