“Nueva Ecija now enjoys a stable peace and order climate and Novo Ecijanos can now speak freely and openly irrespective of their party affiliations and loyalty,” Umali said, calling the COMELEC to finally consider removing Nueva Ecija from the list of traditional hot spots to change its image into a progressive and advancing province where the place is categorized as a hot spot where there is intense political rivalry, presence of armed goons and violence.
Umali recalled that last year, the COMELEC recognized the peaceful conduct of the local polls in the province, in the absence of the usual pre and post-election violence which characterized previous political exercises.
He furthered that for so long the province was tagged as an election hot spot. “We were number one in Central Luzon until Abra came along. But in the last elections, we were able to show that there was no untoward incident and hopefully, the COMELEC will take the cue and remove us from the list,” he said.
Umali explained that when he first ran for governor in 2007, he asked the COMELEC to place the province under Comelec control. When he won, he as the sitting governor asked the Comelec again to place the province under its control.
“Many were surprised when I did that considering I was the sitting governor. Some were saying that was an admission that I had no control of the situation. But I just want to deliver the message that we need to have peaceful and orderly elections in 2010 so we can change Nueva Ecija and that’s what exactly happened,” he said.
Umali recalled that during the campaign period, he instructed the Philippine National Police (PNP) to provide area security to his political rivals to avert any occurrence of violence, adding that he was fully aware that if something untoward happened to them, people might pin the blame on me so it’s better to take precautions.
Umali said without taking offense on other politicians, everybody in Nueva Ecija can now speak freely and openly on any issue under the sun without fear of recrimination or reprisals. “The local media can vouch for that. They are now very open. In fact, some of them have been slapped with libel cases for exercising their freedom of the press,” he said.
Vice Gov. Jose Gay Padiernos welcomed Umali’s call for the Comelec to remove Nueva Ecija from the hot spot’s list, saying the political landscape in the province has changed considerably.
He said that before, there was a time when none of the local politicians would want to be a leader for Umali but they have since maintained an open mind and they now gravitate towards to the new leadership in the Capitol.
“Of course, there are still incidents of killings but these are no longer politically motivated,” he said, saying that this is the new Nueva Ecija and political violence is now a thing of the past.” (Jason de Asis)
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