Rampant vote-buying, coercion and intimidation marked the recent election for ABC presidents in towns in Camarines Sur never before seen in previous polls, indicating that an era of political terrorism has come to the province.
The most prominent case of election-related terrorism was the forcible abduction and kidnapping of barangay captain Augusto Laure of San Roque, Bombon a day before the December 11 election.
At 11 o’clock in the evening Sunday, December 9, 2007 three men came to his house telling him not to vote anymore for his candidate Raul Porteria or boycott the election. The three men told him they were NPAs and one identified himself as Ka Garling and another as Ka Willy supposedly belonging to Romulo Jallores command.
Laure and Porteria are identified with the camp of Bombon Mayor Ma. Luisa ‘Embot’ Angeles.
Terrified, Laure agreed not to vote anymore on election day.
But at around 2:00 o’clock in the morning of December 10 or about three hours later, two men, one of whom was in the first group came back on a motorcycle. This time they wanted Laure to go with him because they said he is suspected as an “asset” or informer of the military which Laure denied.
Laure was told to board the motocycle between the two men and was blindfolded on reaching Magarao town. He was later transferred to a vehicle and his blindfold was removed only when he was already in a room in a safehouse somewhere in the Partido area.
Laure was escorted to a bus from Lagonoy at around 3:00 pm on December 11 when the ABC election was over.
Bombon town officials and residents who knew of the incident believed Laure’s abductors were not really NPAs but goons hired by politicians.
