Deadly violence disrupted the first Bangsamoro parliamentary election Monday, leaving three people dead and 15 wounded before polls opened and at least four others hurt in a separate shooting after voting began in Cotabato City.
The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) said it was monitoring developments on the ground and gathering information on the violence in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
PPCRV National Coordinator Dr. Arwin Serrano, who is in the region, said initial information indicated that the earlier shooting stemmed from a dispute over positions in a voting queue.
“It is currently being investigated, and we are determining what really happened. But based on the information we have gathered, this stemmed from a dispute over positions in the queue starting at around 11 p.m. and the events that followed,” said Serrano in Filipino during an interview with Radyo Veritas 846.
“That is why we do not want incidents like this to happen, especially when lives have been lost,” he added.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that gunfire erupted shortly before midnight outside a school being used as a polling station in Cotabato City, killing three people and wounding 15.
Cotabato police chief Jibin Bongcayao said members of rival political factions had been jostling for the right to cast their votes first.
“It started as a struggle for position in the queue between two groups,” said Bongcayao.
“It led to shoving, escalated into a fistfight, and eventually gunfire broke out in a crowded area,” he added.
Bongcayao said the men belonged to rival parties that emerged from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which fought for decades for regional autonomy.
Hours later, at least four people were hurt when gunfire broke out inside Central Pilot Elementary School in Cotabato City.
The shooting happened shortly before 7 a.m. after a commotion involving groups of men who had been throwing stones at each other.
Voters ran for safety when shots were fired as government soldiers continued securing the polling center.
Voting at the school had already been delayed after automated counting machines arrived nearly an hour after the scheduled start of early voting at 5 a.m.
Cotabato City, BARMM’s regional center, had been placed under the control of the Commission on Elections following incidents of violence.
AFP also reported that a man died in a hospital early Monday following an explosion near another polling station. Police were still investigating the cause.
The incidents unfolded as more than two million voters were eligible to elect members of the 80-seat Bangsamoro Parliament, with 13 political parties contesting the polls.
The vote marks a milestone in a peace process that began in the late 1990s and led to the establishment of the autonomous Bangsamoro region.
More than 20,000 security personnel were deployed across BARMM, with quick-response teams assembled to address potential violence.
The election followed appeals from Church and government leaders for political groups to protect gains made under the peace process.
Bishop Leo Dalmao of Basilan said ahead of the vote that the province’s experience of relative peace in recent years should be reflected in the conduct of the election.
“We pray that the peaceful gains we have made in the past years will also bear fruit in an orderly, peaceful and honest election,” said Dalmao, according to SunStar Zamboanga.
The bishop also expressed hope that the election would produce “better and good leaders” for Basilan and the Bangsamoro region.
Basilan Gov. Mujiv Hataman also appealed for political parties to play fair and allow voters to freely cast their ballots, according to SunStar.
Hataman described the election as historic and said it formed part of the peace process involving the government and formerly armed groups. He also noted that decommissioning remained unfinished and tensions persisted in some areas.
Serrano said PPCRV was giving particular importance to the election because Bangsamoro voters were directly choosing members of their Parliament for the first time.
“We are really giving this great importance and significance because this is the first time that the people themselves will choose and vote for the members of Parliament, unlike before when they were appointed by Malacañang,” said Serrano in Filipino.
Of the 80 parliamentary seats, 40 are allocated through political parties, 32 are district seats from six parliamentary areas, and eight are reserved for sectoral representatives.
The sectors include Indigenous Peoples, ulama, traditional leaders, youth and women. Serrano said 30% of representatives coming from political parties must be women.
“That is why we will see a somewhat different composition of Parliament in this election,” said Serrano.
PPCRV has set up a transparency server at Circuit Makati, a local command center at the Phinma Building in Makati and another command center in BARMM to monitor the elections.
Serrano said international observers from the European Union, Japan, Australia, Turkey and France, as well as the Asian Network for Free Elections, were also observing the vote.
The Presidential Task Force on Media Security, meanwhile, said it had recorded no attacks, harassment or other incidents involving journalists and news crews covering the election as of noon Monday.
PTFOMS said its monitoring centers in Cotabato City, Marawi City and Zamboanga City were maintaining contact with local, national and foreign journalists.
A rapid deployment team led by PTFOMS Executive Director Undersecretary Jose Torres Jr. also inspected polling precincts where civil disturbances and isolated tensions had been reported earlier in the day.
The task force said scuffles and tensions disrupted some voting queues, but no journalists were targeted, harmed, or prevented from covering the election.
