Almost 80 percent of the voters in the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao Del Sur, and Basilan in the 2016 elections were all fake, according to a motion filed by former Sulu governor Abdusakur “Sakur” Tan on Monday before the Commission on Elections.
Tan moved to have the results of the May elections two years ago in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao dismissed as based on a forensic examination, the thumbprints of the registered voters didn’t match the actual voters in the three provinces covered by ARMM.
In a statement, Tan said it was “unfair” for citizens of ARMM to be led by a “fake governor.” Tan has a pending protest before the Comelec against incumbent governor Mujiv Hataman.
Former Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes, who is Tan’s lawyer in the poll case, stressed that `voters in the region in 2016 were not all registered voters or the so-called “substitute voters” that often occurs in Mindanao.
From the 67,000 thumbprints that they examined, 40,000 were proven fake, the former poll chief added.
“That’s why the equivalent votes counted in ARMM should be declared null and void,” Brillantes said.
“Even before, the [previous] Aquino administration has planned to cheat us out of the election, and we were warned several times by former Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo not to run against Hataman,” Tan said in his statement.
In a meeting with former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas and military, police and Department of Defense officials, former President Noynoy Aquino threatened Tan that he would personally go to Sulu to “eliminate” Tan’s whole family if he would not withdraw his candidacy against Hataman, Tan said.
“Hindi lalaki kausap si Noynoy at walang isang salita [Noynoy doesn’t have a man’s word],” he added.
Aquino even sent some officials of West Mincom (the Armed Forces Western Mindanao Command) and told Tan’s child, “Masyadong matigas ang ulo ng tatay mo, baka madamay ka [Your father’s too stubborn, you might get involved],” the former governor said.
Because of this threat, Tan said he confronted the Army officials and uttered: “Kahit i-firing squad ni’yo ako, hindi ako magwi-wiwithdraw (Even if I face a firing squad, I won’t withdraw).”
