by Meriam G. Desacada
Catbalogan City–Candidates for chairman in 19 of 20 barangays of Matuginao, Samar are guaranteed winners because they are running without any opposition in the coming Barangay Elections this October.
Matuginao is Samar’s landlocked town that lies in the borders of Northern Samar and Eastern Samar.
Mayor Aran Boller confirmed this matter, saying that in prior dialogues among his constituents, there was an unwritten agreement that there shall be no competition in the elections to avoid conflict and shall unite instead to support the one who decides to run as leader of a particular barangay.
Boller, in an interview with a radio station in Tacloban City, disclosed that there is one barangay however that did not follow this unique arrangement. He however did not mention the barangay and why it did not toe the line.
The mayor said that, in that barangay, the two candidates vying for chairman’s post are political neophytes.
He further bared that, in another barangay, it has been rumored that the unopposed candidate has been endorsed by the communist rebels still in the area, and is also gaining popular support from the residents.
Despite this situation of a no-contest elections in his town, however, Boller is calling on authorities to still maintain peace and order, and secure the town from possible violence related to the elections. —Meriam G. Desacada