Camp Olivas, Pampanga—Rep. and former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo cast her vote at around 8:30 a.m. Monday morning at the Central Elementary School in Barangay San Nicolas, Lubao, Pampanga.
Atty. Emmanuel E. Ignacio, regional director of the Commission on Elections, said Arroyo was accompanied by a sheriff from the Sandiganbayan and four police escorts even as she rode her own vehicle.
Arroyo, running unopposed to represent the first district of Pampanga, was accompanied by Gov. Lilia Pineda when she cast her vote.
Ignacio said that there was 80 percent turnout of voters in the region compared to the 2010 (74 percent) and 2013 (77.9 percent) elections amid reports of vote buying in Angeles and Mabalacat in Pampanga, Cabanatuan in Nueva Ecija and some towns in Bulacan.
Central Luzon has a total of 6,056,392 registered voters.
Meanwhile, 38 vote counting machines in the region malfunctioned during the election. Ignacio said that counting machines failed to read and initialize the ballots.
The Regional Election Monitoring Center here reported 17 election-related incidents in the region, mostly shootings among rival candidates, mauling, grave threat, strafing, vote buying, and armed encounter.
Chief Supt. Rudy Lacatin, regional director of the PRO 3, said that the incidents was reported in Bataan, four; Bulacan, eight; Nueva Ecija, two; Tarlac, two; Angels City one; but no casualty was also reportedly all the incidents.
In San Leonardo, Nueva Ecija, the chief of police identified as Chief Inspector Renato Morales was relieve yesterday after a shooting incident involving the supporters of rival candidates in the area.
