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Thursday, January 08, 2004
Council member unseated by 1 vote
By Karlon N. Rama
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
COME May 2004, Genaro Belarmino, a local politico from Badian, Cebu, won’t be running for election. His campaign will be for reelection.
Days after filing his certificate of candidacy and four months before the next poll, Belarmino got booted back into the Badian Municipal Council by virtue of a Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc ruling.
Comelec ruled he was the true winner. By one vote.
A writ of execution was issued recently to enforce the ruling, signed by Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos last Oct. 9.
Belarmino will replace Floro Sande Jr. as the eighth municipal councilor of Badian in the remaining five months before all their electoral terms expire.
Belarmino was among the proclaimed Badian municipal councilors during the last election, occupying the last spot of the eight-member council.
He had defeated his closest contender, Sande, by 11 votes, 3,971 to 3,960.
Dagdag-bawas
Sande, however, filed an election protest before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Barili, alleging that he was a victim of “dagdag-bawas” (vote-shaving and vote-padding) done through the misappreciation of ballots, erroneous computation and fraudulent counting in 12 precincts.
RTC Judge Ildefonso Suerte, on Oct. 3, 2001, ruled in Sande’s favor.
A member of the Board of Election Tellers had testified that she erroneously, albeit innocently, tallied Belarmino’s votes as 86 instead of 76 in one precinct.
Suerte deducted 10 votes cast in favor of Belarmino and declared another one as invalid, reducing Belarmino’s count to 3,960, while awarding two votes to Sande for the adjustment, 3,962.
Suerte also declared as valid one ballot, cast in Sande’s favor, which the Municipal Board of Canvassers in Badian already ruled to be invalid.
This further increased Sande’s count to 3,963.
Because of the ruling and the three additional votes, Sande took over Belarmino’s post.
One vote
Belarmino filed a motion for reconsideration that was subsequently raffled off to the Comelec 2nd Division.
The division, after review, issued its own resolution modifying the trial court’s ruling and declaring both men tied at 3,961.
The division concurred with the need to reduce Belarmino’s votes by 10, but not in its declaration that one vote cast in Belarmino’s favor was invalid.
It also did not concur with the order to award Sande the two additional votes for the adjustment, although concurring with the court’s findings that the one vote cast in Sande’s favor, but declared invalid by the Municipal Board of Canvassers, was valid.
It ordered that the two draw lots to determine who will occupy the council seat.
Both contenders filed their appeals before the Comelec en banc.
The commission upheld the division’s ruling, considering it had “a first-hand evaluation of the evidence.”
The Comelec en banc, however, ordered that one of the votes cast for one “Dario Belarmeno” be credited as an added vote for Belarmino.
Under the rules, misspelled names sounding similar to the name of one candidate shall be counted in favor of that candidate.
Thanks to that vote for “Dario Belarmeno,” Genaro Belarmino can rejoin the Badian Municipal Council this week.
(January 8, 2004 issue)
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