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Thursday, April 27, 2006
No complaint has reached us yet: Cebu City poll officer
Local poll offices in Cebu City will entertain complaints regarding the validity of their signatures in the people’s initiative campaign only if these are made official or formal.
Cebu City election officer for the south district Marchel Sarno said that as of yesterday afternoon, they have not received any complaint or petition for the withdrawal of some signatures from the petition for Charter change.
He said, though, that he heard during a rally held by militant group members that at least four individuals were asked to sign the forms in return for special favors.
The rallyists, however, did not substantiate their complaint.
“They said they were misled into signing but there is no affidavit to support their statement. If they can make a formal complaint, then we will include it in our report and we will submit this to the central office together with the results of the verification,” Sarno said yesterday.
But if anyone wants to file a complaint, it has to be made before Comelec Cebu City submits its report later this month, he also said.
Sarno said the four individuals claimed they were misled into signing the forms after they were promised to be given a bag of rice or will be made poll watchers in the next elections.
“If that is true and they feel were duped, then they should file a complaint of estafa against those who made them sign. Our job is only to verify their signatures,” he said.
The Comelec south district office is almost done with the verification process.
As of yesterday, some 21,000 of the 25,425 signatures submitted to their office for verification were already checked.
Of the number, 9,765 were found to be similar with the voter’s records and 4,624 are different. Some 4,400 signatories do not have voter’s records while 2,000 others are not registered voters of the city.
In the north district, some 18,000 were already verified, 7,605 of which were similar to the voter’s records.
Even if the people’s initiative campaign got the required number of votes in Cebu City, Mayor Tomas Osmeña believes the move to amend the 1987 Constitution will not prosper.
Osmeña was unfazed by the outcome of the verification of the signatures and reiterated his earlier announcement that he will oppose the campaign once it reaches a plebiscite.
“Right now, it’s even unlikely it will reach that point because to my understanding, in all places, you need the three percent of the total number of voters. So if you have 2,000 towns, you need three percent in all these places, not 1,999, that’s fatal,” Osmeña said Tuesday.
Comelec Cebu City is required to submit a certification to the provincial office stating the total number of signatures verified, signatures that appear to be similar with and different from the voter’s records, signatories who have no voter’s records and signatories who are not registered voters in the city. (LCR)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (April 27, 2006 issue)
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