Update: Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioner Elias Yusoph has denied that he received money from local candidates in Lanao del Sur province before the May 10 elections as accused by a military official.
He also chided Brig. Gen. Ray Ardo, chief of the Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade, for coming up with an accusation based on “rumors and hearsay.”
by Froilan Gallardo
Mindanews
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY— It was all about the huge amount of bribe money that corrupted election officials who issued orders to cluster polling precincts to favored politicians during the last elections in May, military officers and poll watchdog groups said.
“Politicians who lost a lot of money want to recoup their losses. That is the reason why Nuraldin was kidnapped,” said Brig. Gen. Ray Ardo, chief of the Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade. “They want to be refunded,” he added.
At the center of the controversy that hounded the kidnapping of Nuraldin is his father Elias, the only Muslim commissioner in the Commission on Elections.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), in its luwaran.com website, said that “the kidnapping was a collective effort” of all losers in the election “to force him [Commissioner Yusoph] to refund the bribes given him during the elections” as it accused the election official of “[taking] money from all sides.”
There was no immediate comment from the elder Yusoph and his family about the accusation.