Comelec denies plea of Bacayan councilor

A COUNCILOR in Barangay Bacayan, Cebu City faces removal from office after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc denied her motion for reconsideration and affirmed the resolution of the Comelec second division.

Last July 22, 2011, the Comelec second division annulled the proclamation of Mildred Branzuela as the seventh winning candidate in the 2010 barangay elections and declared Emilia Borgonia as the sixth winning candidate.

This was after the Barangay Board of Canvassers and the Board of Election Tellers filed a petition and manifested that there was a mistake in the copying, tabulation and tallying of the figures from the election returns of Precincts 92-A and 92-B to the statement of votes by precinct.

Because of the erroneous entry, Borgonia’s 126 votes in the precincts went to Branzuela, which put her in the sixth spot and relegated Borgonia to ninth place.

Branzuela filed an instant motion for reconsideration before the Comelec en banc citing procedural lapses in the filing of the petition against her.

Defeated

But the Comelec en banc, in its July 17, 2012 decision, said Branzuela lost in the last barangay election.

“Evidently, Branzuela, undoubtedly a defeated candidate, tried to prevent the annulment of her flawed proclamation in the guise of the alleged procedural lapses,” said the Comelec en banc resolution.

Branzuela, in a separate interview, said they will exhaust all the legal remedies to question the validity of the petition filed against her.

She asked her lawyer, Ervin Estandarte, to do what ought to be done to protect the constituents of Barangay Bacayan.

“Samukan na baya ko, pero ang katawhan man ang naghangyo nga ayaw og surrender konsehal (I find this annoying, but it’s the people who have asked me not to surrender), so, we will fight for them,” Branzuela said.

Second motion

She learned that Estandarte plans to file a second motion for reconsideration of the decision and will ask for a temporary restraining order on the proclamation of Borgonia.

Borgonia, for her part, said she already told her legal counsel to file a motion for a writ of execution this Wednesday for her proclamation.

Both Branzuela and Borgonia received a copy of the decision of the Comelec en banc last week.

City Election Officer Marchel Sarno clarified he will convene the Barangay Board of Canvassers to proclaim Borgonia once he will receive the writ of execution.

“Unless there’s a temporary restraining order, we will execute the order if the petitioners will get the writ of execution,” Sarno said.