TEXT AND PHOTOS BY DABET CASTAÑEDA
Bulatlat
ELECTION WATCH/BREAKING NEWS
May 16, 2007 – 4:45pm

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Benjamin Abalos was alarmed over news that election officers were asked to leave the canvassing area at the Pasig Sports Center at around 7:30 p.m. May 15.

“That should not be the case. We are in command of the election process,” Abalos told Bulatlat when asked about the incident.

Comelec officials in Pasig flared up after SPO3 Fernando Sibrero, team leader of the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) group in Pasig City, asked them to pack their things and leave the canvassing area.

“Bakit nila kami pinapaalis?”(Why are they telling us to leave?) a female Comelec official of Pasig City who requested anonymity told Bulatlat. “Baka may binabalak silang gawin,” (They might be cooking up something.) she said.

In a separate interview with Sibrero, he said they asked the Comelec officials to leave the area because the canvassing was already closed as early as 7 p.m. “Talagang ganun,” he said.

Sibrero said they were allowing nine poll watchers of mayoralty candidates Vicente Eusebio (incumbent) and Robert Jaworski Jr. and two young Comelec volunteers, one of whom is 18-year old Mark Anthony Austria, to sleep in the canvassing area.(Bulatlat.com)

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