Comelec to file case vs ex-election officer

Thursday, February 9, 2012

THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) has found probable cause to file criminal case against former city election officer lawyer Gina Luna Zayas-Sabio in relation to the dumping of election paraphernalia in a junk shop and at the city’s dumpsite on May 11, 2010.

The Comelec en banc recommended the filing of the charges against Sabio for violation of Section 262 and Sections 18, 219 and 230 in relation to Section 262 of the Omnibus Election Code.

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Section 18, 219 and 230 of the Omnibus Election Code provide for the preservation of ballot boxes, their keys and disposition of their contents and the safekeeping of transmitted election returns.

Sabio was accused of gross negligence in relation to the May 10, 2010 national and local elections where some of the election documents and paraphernalia were found in a junkyard in Barangay Puntod and at the dumpsite in Zayas, Barangay Carmen a day after the elections.

In a 21-page resolution dated January 24, 2012, the Comelec en banc stated that Sabio’s admission that the accountable forms such as rejected ballots, Election Returns, PIN Code, Eye buttons, main memory cards, paper seals, non-accountable forms such as Statistical Reports, Initialization Report, EDVL, Audit Lot Report, Minutes of Testing and Sealing, and election paraphernalia such as key to the ballot box that were found at Ramirez Junkshop is a prima facie evidence to establish that she violated Section 261 and Sections 18, 219 and 230 in relation to Section 262 of the Omnibus Election Code.

“We could not by stretch of imagination dismiss such grievous incident as negligible or inconsequential. There exists a strong suspicion that she actually committed the election offense which she is charged,” the resolution stated.

The resolution added that as election officer, Sabio should safeguard and account for the said documents and paraphernalia since those are her mandate duties, as contained in her job descriptions.

It also stressed that as election officer, she occupies a very sensitive position that requires competence and efficiency to insure the public’s confidence in the conduct of the election.

Sabio earlier said what happened was an “honest mistake and oversight due to overload of works.”

Carmen village chief Rolando Uy declined to give his comment on the Comelec’s decision.

Uy, the closest opponent of incumbent Mayor Vicente Emano in the 2010 mayoralty race, filed an election protest against the latter for alleged fraud.

Lawyer Mariano Carrasco, one of the legal counsels of Uy, expressed pleasure over the latest development.

Carrasco said though it was a delayed decision, it is still a welcome development.

Carrasco also said Comelec has been “haunted of its conscience” for not taking action by not filing charges against government officials responsible in the dumping of the election materials and documents at the dumpsite and junkyard.

Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro tried to reach Sabio for comment but she cannot be contacted.