Comelec begins purging voters’ list of volatile Lanao del Sur town

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The court order covers 1,750 names in the voters’ list of Pualas, Lanao del Sur, which were found to be fake

LANAO DEL SUR, Philippines –  Election officials have begun manually removing nearly two thousand names from the voters’ list in a Lanao del Sur town, following a court order declaring them fictitious, a process now being carried out under tight military and police security ahead of the May 12 polls.

Pualas town election officer Arang Banto said the ongoing deletions stemmed from a February 27 ruling by the 3rd Municipal Trial Circuit Court (MTCC) in Ganassi, Lanao del Sur, in response to a petition filed in 2024 by a mayoral candidate.

The court order covers 1,750 names in the voters’ list of Pualas, Lanao del Sur, which were found to be fake.

SECURITY. Army soldiers provide security in Pualas, Lanao del Sur, on Monday, April 21, 2025, as Comelec officials begin removing the names of fake voters in the town ahead of the May 12 elections. Froilan Gallardo/Rappler

“We are removing the names one by one and manually,” Banto told reporters from the heavily guarded municipal hall on Monday, April 22.

Banto said the process would take days to complete.

The town is among 18 of Lanao del Sur’s 39 municipalities flagged by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) as “areas of grave concern” due to a history of election-related violence and intense political rivalry.

In late 2024, mayoral hopeful Al Ihsan Marohom Ibrahim asked the court to strike out 3,000 alleged fake voters, whom he claimed were supporters of incumbent Pualas Mayor Amanoden Ducol. The court later found at least 1,750 names to be ineligible.

The Ganassi-based court exercises jurisdiction over Pualas and several other towns in Lanao del Sur.

Army Task Force commander Colonel Noel Ian Ignes said 17 other areas in Lanao del Sur had also been placed under the same high-risk classification.

“Marawi City is also categorized as an area of grave concern due to [the possibility of] election violence,” Ignes said.

He said nine towns were labeled as “orange” areas of concern, while eight others were considered “yellow” or areas of least concern. Only four towns in the province have no history of poll-related violence.

Tensions started last December when the court summoned around 2,000 individuals to answer allegations they were not legitimate voters. 

The move sparked protests from supporters of Mayor Ducol, who flocked outside the court in Ganassi to question Ibrahim’s petition. They tried to block a group of lawyers representing the petitioner from leaving the local courthouse. – Rappler.com