CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines – The killings of two Commission on Elections officers in Lanao del Norte and Sultan Kudarat provinces have sent a chilling message across Northern Mindanao, prompting election officials to demand police protection amid growing fears for their safety.
The violence has shaken the region’s election staff, who now question whether they will be able to carry out their duties for the upcoming May 2025 elections.
Renato Magbutay, director of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Northern Mindanao, said that, in light of the recent murders, they have urgently requested the Philippine National Police (PNP) to step up security and deploy cops to protect election officials across the region, particularly in towns like Nunungan, Lanao del Norte.
It was there, on November 25, that election officer Mark Orlando “Jhovals” Vallecer II was gunned down in an ambush after attending a meeting in nearby Salvador town, Lanao del Norte.
Magbutay was blunt about the stakes. Without the promise of sufficient police security, he said many election officials will be too apprehensive to serve come election day.
“Our election officers are already apprehensive because of the deaths of Vallecer, and another Comelec official in Sultan Kudarat,” Magbutay said.
Magbutay has met with PNP officials in the region to evaluate security risks for election officers. Those who have received death threats, he said, will be provided with police protection.
The two election officers were killed within two days of each other.
Vallecer, 51, election officer of Nunungan town, was killed by two gunmen who ambushed him after a meeting in Salvador town, Lanao del Norte, last Monday, November 25.
Vallecer was from Cagayan de Oro, also in Northern Mindanao, where his relatives, friends, and classmates at the Jesuit-run Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan issued strong statements to demand for justice.
The other Comelec official killed was Janeco Allan Dionaldo Pandoy, assistant election officer in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat in the Soccsksargen region, on Saturday, November 23.
Pandoy had just come from a barbershop and was driving a motorcycle when he was killed in an ambush in Purok Sampaguita in the town center, said Major Josemarie Cua, the police chief of President Quirino town.
Salvador town police chief Major Teodorico Gallego said the gunmen fired eight shots at Vallecer’s red Hyundai Accent as it slowed down on a rough section of the road in Barangay Curva Miagao.
“But one bullet that pierced the left side of Vallecer’s body was fatal,” Gallego said.
He said they are looking for CCTV cameras along the road between Nunungan and Salvador to see if they captured images of the gunmen, who fled the scene. – Rappler.com
