Thursday, May 17, 2007 Opposition claims 'grand-scale cheating' in polls By Lizanilla J. Amarga
THE PDP-LABAN-Genuine Opposition (GO) here is now investigating what it believes could be a "grand-scale cheating" of the elections here last Monday and their lawyers have now manifested this to the canvassing officials.
The opposition group discovered that most of the election returns (ERs) submitted for canvassing did not contain the number as to how many ballots were not used or are labeled as "excess ballots" after the closing of the precincts.
PDP-LABAN-GO is strongly convinced that this is linked to how two PPCRV-Namfrel poll watchers caught a board of election inspector (BEI) together with his female housemaid violating the Omnibus Election Code.
This by bringing the voters lists with computerized pictures and a stamp pad outside the poll precinct and into a downstairs room at the Agusan National High School, Agusan town this city.
Also, a public teacher who requested anonymity last Sunday night disclosed that she was given P5,000 by her head to rig the election results in her precinct and promised additional P10,000 should the candidates they were routing for will win.
But the Commission on Elections (Comelec)-Cagayan de Oro (Comelec-CDO) election supervisor Lawyer Stalin Baguio said the election was successful.
In an interview with Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro Wednesday, PDP-LABAN-GO Paralegal team volunteer Ilya Kristin "Batin" Ravanera said their group is now probing into what they believe was the rigging of the elections here last Monday.
"We are looking into this as a grand scale cheating occurred," she said. "The elections may be peaceful but it does not mean there was no cheating of the grander scale."
Too much of a coincidence
Ravanera said their paralegal team manning the canvassing at the City Hall and Black and White Movement leader Bencyrus Ellorin complained as to why most of the ERs did not indicate as to the number of excess ballots in each precinct.
She said this is very important as this would indicate how many voters actually voted and how many did not, thus the ballots allocated for these voters who failed to vote should be duly accounted for, indicated in the ERs, and torn apart right in front of the eyes of the poll watchers.
"Diba dapat naa may ibutang kung pila ang wala magamit nga mga ballota or excess ballots sa mga ERs pero ang kadaghanan they were left blank! (The ERs were suppossed to indicate how many ballots were not used or what is called excess ballots but this was left blank!)," she said.
"Kung blanko mangud dili nanato ma-trace kung pila ug asa na kadtong wala magamit nga balota (Because if this is left blank then there is no way of tracing how many and what happened to the ballots not used)," she added.
Ellorin for his part said he was at the canvassing for the second district on Wednesday and there were around 67 ERs that were canvassed.
He said he and the paralegal team with him noticed that all the ERs that landed on their table did not bear the number as to how many spoiled or excess ballots there were in the ballot boxes where it came from.
To them, this was too much of a coincidence if it were not actually one of the plans hatched before the poll race last Monday begun.
"Tanan gyud nga ERs so far mao sa among huna-huna impossible ra kaayo nga tanan nagkasabot nga dili nato butangan ug pila ang spoiled or excess ballots sa ERs (All the ERs before us so far did not bear the number as to how many ballots were not used, so to our thinking it is very impossible that everybody has come to an agreement not to put the number of spoiled or excess ballots at the ERs)," he said.
Won't tally up
"Kini labi na nga nadugay nagud sila ani nga trabaho ug kabalo sila nga tanan nga naa sa ballot box must be dully accounted for (Especially as these people manning the precincts have been into this poll exercise for too long already)," said Ellorin.
He said the number of ballots used and the number of spoiled and considered as marked ballots should also tally-up but the BEIs also failed to do this.
"Gi-zero-zero ang uban mao dili mag-tally og mo-balance ang tanan (Some were just labeled up as zero that was why the numbers won't tally up)," he said.
PDP-LABAN-GO is now looking into this matter and how this is linked to a teacher and his househelp being caught by two volunteers from the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV)-Namfrel bringing down the voters list and a stamp pad to a downstairs room.
"Because everything now looks like all the ingredients for ballot padding are in place and being cooked up," Ellorin said.
PPCRV-Namfrel legal-wing dubbed as Legal Network for Truthful Elections and the National Secretariat for Social Action (Lente-Nassa) volunteer Lawyer Bobby Goking investigated the incident at the Agusan National High School.
He recounted how around 7 a.m. Wednesday, two of their PPCRV-Namfrel volunteers Ricardo Celocia and Elson Bacongis witnessed Precinct No. 129-A BEI Larumbe bringing to a downstairs room the voters' list and a stamp pad.
"They saw (volunteers) the BEI with a lady, who we believe was a flying voter, huddled together facing the voters' list and then tried to stop them," he said.
"When they saw the BEI and the lady, there was newly-smeared ink on the thumb of the lady."
The lady was later on identified as Junita Almojalas, allegedly Larumbe's househelp.
Goking said the volunteers even called for the police.
He said Larumbe tried to deny everything even saying that there was no harm done considering that he has closed everything already.
But the PPCRV-Namfrel volunteers questioned this as the ballot boxes could not be closed without them signing anything or getting a copy of their ERs.
"Also, when they got there the ballot box was still open," he said.
Goking recalled how Larumbe also tried to do some “damage control” by trying to put his thumbprint on the certificate of votes so that it would appear that indeed he has closed these documents.
He said Larumbe was also asked as to the whereabouts of the ballots that were not used or the excess ballots.
But Larumbe could not produce all the excess ballots but suspiciously instead had a separate folder where a ballot was kept but unsigned at the back.
"And when we checked the ballot the list contained the complete line-up of Dongkoy (Cagayan de Oro city mayor Vicente Emano who is running for city vice-mayor)," he said.
He added that a police blotter was already filed with eight witnesses and the proper legal charges will soon be lodged in court.
Nevertheless, Baguio for his part said there was nothing to the Larumbe-Juanita incident at Agusan National High School.
"It was an honest mistake and done in good faith," his text message to this paper reads.
But Goking countered that it is impossible for the whole thing to be just an "honest mistake" considering that the mere act of taking the voters' list and stamp pad outside the poll precinct is in itself illegal.
