A stub of ballots, which was discovered missing from one of the polling precincts at the Alangilan Elementary School in Barangay Alangilan, Bacolod City yesterday morning, was later discovered in an adjacent room in the same school.

Bacolod Commission on Elections registrar Mavil Majarucon yesterday said the Board of Election Teller in charge of the missing stub with Serial Nos. 501-600 claimed that when she opened the ballot box inside room 305-B, she discovered its content missing.

She said she instructed her election assistant to proceed to the school and to investigate the matter. The missing ballots were later found in room no. 306-A and may have been misplaced by the BET, she added.

Majarucon, however, said they had nothing to be alarmed about even if the missing ballots had not been found since they could declare them null and void.

She said her office has also received complaints of rampant vote-buying in several barangays and she advised the public against voting for candidates who engage in such activity and to report them to the police.

“Those who are buying votes will become corrupt officials,” Majarucon said.

Meanwhile, Bacolod City Police Office director Senior Supt. Ronilo Quebrar yesterday said the synchronized barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections in the city were “generally peaceful” with no reported incidents related to the nationwide polling.

Quebrar said there were no reports of election-related violence in Bacolod and there was only one incident of gun ban violation where a teenager was arrested by Police Station 6 officers for possession of a homemade shotgun known as “sumpak.”

Only eight violators and eight guns have been recorded in Bacolod since the firearm ban set by Commission on Elections started on September 29, Quebrar said.*PP/CGS

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