Wednesday, November 21, 2007 Judge nixes cases on town mayor, execs By Lizanilla J. Amarga
REGIONAL Trial Court Judge Gil Bollozos upheld the victory of Villanueva Mayor Juliette Uy and all her eight municipal councilors during the May 14, 2007 elections.
The court also dismissed the three election protests filed by Dr. Josefa Neri and her municipal councilor bets Albin Amante and Gerardo Bautista who all contended that Uy's camp rigged the poll race.
The legal counsel for the three candidates filed an appeal before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on this case.
During the May 2007 eections, Uy garnered 8,108 votes while Neri got 3,912 votes or a difference of 4,196 votes.
Manuel Silfavan, the eight municipal councilor in Uy's camp, got 4,769 votes while Amante got 3,499 votes or a difference of 1,270 votes while Bautista got 3,225 votes or a difference of 1,544 votes.
When interviewed earlier, Neri said it may seem that their election protests were already doomed to fail considering that Uy's lead against her stands at four digits.
However, this mayoral candidate who ran under Misamis Oriental Gov. Oscar Moreno said they just wanted to prove that indeed Uy rigged the elections and thus supposedly frustrated the will of the people of Villanueva, Misamis Oriental.
Unnecessary
This together with Uy's allies and municipal councilors Celso Casino, Enrique Zayas, Romeo Bantug, Leoncio Abejo, Edwin Dagsuhan, Carmito Tapangot and Macario Lood.
Neri protested 91 ballot boxes while Amante and Bautista protested for only 70 ballot boxes.
Judge Bollozos then had the 20 percent of the total protested ballot boxes pinpointed that will "best attest to the voters recovered or will best exemplify the frauds or irregularities pleaded in the protests."
However, after the revision of ballots in these pinpointed ballot boxes, Judge Bollozos, in his 92-page decision said it is unnecessary to determine and evaluate the remaining 80 percent of the boxes.
"Because the trend would still be that the lead of the proclaimed mayoral and elected kagawads will not be surmounted and overtaken by the protestants. Wherefore, these election protests are dismissed."
Judge Bollozos explained that after the 20 percent ballot boxes were put under revision and consideration, the total number of invalidated ballots to be deducted from the protestee, Uy is 85 votes while the total votes recovered by Neri are nine votes and one vote to be deducted from Uy.
"Mathematically computing the same, it would seem that of the 20 percent precincts pinpointed, Neri will be able to deduct only from the lead of Uy a total number of (85 + 9 - 1) 93 votes. This 93 votes comprises the 20 percent of all the precincts that was protested," his order reads.
"Hence, granting for the sake of argument that for every 20 percent of the precinct protested, protestant Neri will also be able to reduce the lead of Uy by 93 votes, then for the entire protested precincts the total reduction will only be (93x5) 465 votes."
Highly improbable
The judge said this "presumption of reduction" could not "even make a dent or alter the result of the election" whereby Uy has a "lead of 4,196 votes of which became 4,135 votes after the retabulation."
Judge Bollozos said the same findings hold true for Amante and Bautista.
He said Amante will be able to reduce only the lead of the eight placer Silfavan by 106 votes based on the 20 percent pinpointed ballot boxes.
"The result is that it will not dislodged the eight placer (Silfavan) because he will still have a commanding lead of (1,470 - 530) 940 votes," his order reads.
On Bautista's case, the judge said Baustista got only 104 votes and thus would only amount a reduction of Silfavan's lead by 520 votes.
"The 520 votes would not be enough to overtake the lead of the 8th placer (Silfavan) over Bautista, which was 1,482 votes after the re-tabulation. The 8th placer will still be the runaway winner by 962 votes," his order reads.
Judge Bollozos said the appreciation of each ballot in every protested ballot boxes brought for his consideration has been pursuant to the above new procedures, existing election laws and Supreme Court decisions on appreciation of ballots among others. Such were all cited in his 92-page decision.
Neri's camp has alleged that the contested ballot boxes had contained ballots that are either written by one person or written by two--purportedly based on the identical handwritings on the questioned ballots.
They alleged that an unspecified number of genuine ballots were spirited out of the polling place and used to rig the elections in favor of Uy and her line-up. The court said it found no substantial evidence to prove the protestants' claims.
"Evaluating the testimonies and the documentary evidence, the Court finds that it would not be enough to draw a conclusion that the ballots were written by one or two persons," the decision reads.
The court said it was "highly improbable that in a precinct where there were poll watchers assigned that include those of the protestants aside from the teachers and other election officials, they will not be able to notice that only one or two persons wrote the ballots." (With a report from DVA)
