By MARK FRANCISCO
CAGAYAN de Oro City first district Rep. Lordan Suan warned barangay officials of Carmen as well as everyone else who pose as barangay residents that they will all face perjury criminal complaints if they continue insisting to misrepresent themselves as such.
This is in the wake of the city Commission on Elections (Comelec) office in the first legislative district which has summoned several thousand persons because of questionable residency transfers.
Comelec is currently entertaining registrations for new voters and people who have transferred barangay residencies for the 2025 elections.
But in the course of the registration, the city Comelec office has discovered a surge of 16,000 people who suddenly applied to vote in barangay Carmen.
To Suan, the number is preposterous.
“Imposible kaayo nga 16,000 ing-ana kadaghan ang nibalhin sa Carmen in less than a year. Motuo ko nga libo kapin ang nibalhin kana nuon,” Suan said.
It was just in October last year that barangay Carmen was the site of the most hotly contested village chairmanship in the 2023 barangay election.
Former Vice Mayor Raineir Joaquin Uy, then the barangay administrator, eventually won over Suan’s father Agapito.
The election was marred with vote buying allegations as much as P6,000 per voter but it was never prosecuted.
In this latest development, 31 people filed complaints against whom they claim as spurious, prompting the city Comelec office to suspend accepting new registrants indefinitely and conduct a probe.
At this point, Suan urged the city Comelec office to expedite the investigation to protect the integrity of the electoral process.
Uy’s father Mayor Rolando Uy also welcomed the probe in a separate statement but his son opined that there is nothing wrong with the situation since “anybody can transfer residency in this free country.”
Suan was not convinced though.
He warned Carmen barangay officials who connived in issuing residency certificates to allegedly spurious persons that they would face perjury complaints.
Suan is also looking on reports that zone leaders in the barangay are hoarding the Comelec summons from the intended persons and added that they are subject to contempt as well.
“Madalahig pa mo og apil. Dili na lang unta ta magpadayon og parehistro kung dili mo taga-dinhi. It is an insult to our democratic process,” he said.
