With Lanao del Sur communities plagued by poverty and short in social services, election season is considered ?paskuhan? (Christmas season). Politicians? money flows like rain, mainly to buy the votes of the residents. As if vote buying were not enough, the elections there, like elsewhere in the country, were chaotic. 
Related story: Elections, Lanao-style
Pandemonium and scuffles break out in several precincts as special elections are held in Lanao del Sur towns. With soldiers deployed in schools and halls leading to precincts littered with garbage and reeking of manure, and many ballots uncounted, one would ask what?s so ?special? about the special elections held here on May 26.
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Among the top-ranking groups in the latest party-list vote count are three newcomers. At least two of these party-list groups have been linked in some way to the Arroyo administration ? with one having openly endorsed a local candidate from Kampi, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo?s party, in the recently concluded senatorial and local elections. Meanwhile, three more are linked with the religious sector.
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Since President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assumed power in January 2001, 196 Filipinos have become victims of enforced disappearances or politically motivated abductions.
All that United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) Pastor Berlin Guerrero, 46, could think of when he spent a horrifying night at the hands of police captors was that he could either rot in jail or join his ?Creator.?