Thursday, May 24, 2007 Last 18 returns for Bogo tally By Katrina N. Tabanao Sun.Star Correspondent With Linette C. Ramos & Minerva B. Gerodias
ONLY 15 of the 196 election returns (ER) from the town of Bogo have yet to be added to the official count by the Special Board of Canvassers, who worked for 22 hours straight starting Tuesday night.
Three ERs were declared missing.
If questions about the ERs are resolved and the three others are accounted for today, voters may finally know whether Bogo Mayor Celestino Martinez III or former Provincial Board member Benhur Salimbangon won the fourth district’s congressional seat.
“Hopefully, mahuman na gyud ta ugma (We hope to finish by Thursday),” said lawyer Eddie Aba, who took over as board chairman after Bohol Provincial Elections Supervisor Veronico Petalcorin collapsed yesterday morning. Fatigue and a punishing schedule were blamed.
Outside the Commission on Elections (Comelec) 7 office, supporters of Salimbangon attempted to storm Martinez’s crowd—they went around the block, evading the scrutiny of policemen and soldiers—but were intercepted before they could harm anyone.
Plastic water bottles flew between the two camps.
Senior Supt. Mariano Natuel, ground commander of the Cebu City Police Office, described the situation around the canvassing area as “a ticking time bomb” and urged their leaders to manage them better.
“Sa among obserbas-yon ang kampo ni Salimbangon ang init kaayo. (We’ve observed that it’s Salimbangon’s camp that’s high-strung.) It’s up to their leaders to control them,” said Natuel.
Without any partial tally figures or a tally board on the results, both camps’ supporters were kept in the dark on how their candidates were doing.
The canvassers called for a recess around 5 p.m. yesterday, after working overnight, and will resume at 8 a.m. today. They expect to hear from election inspectors who were summoned to explain some apparent lapses in some ERs, like the lack of signatures or thumb marks.
C-Cimpel’s help
Meanwhile, Salimbangon’s camp will be writing to Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal to request that the election returns being held by the election watchdog C-Cimpel be made available to the canvassers.
Salimbangon wants these figures from C-Cimpel’s copy compared with those in the official returns that they are questioning.
The board failed to canvass the 15 ERs after Salimbangon questioned these forms’ authenticity.
Lawyer Bienvinedo Cerbo Jr. said the 15 appeared to be either manufactured or tampered. He cited the different quality of the paper used in some ERs. The others looked genuine, he added, but had entries that appeared tampered.
“We ask for the exclusion of these election returns,” Cerbo told the board.
Martinez’s lawyers, however, asked that every single ER be counted. “The deferred election returns are still significant for Tining,” said lawyer Achilles Cañete.
Benhur’s case
Aba ruled that the questioned ERs be canvassed, but only the votes for the senatorial and party-list elections. This time, Salimbangon’s legal panel didn’t object.
“But why canvass the election returns specifically for national positions when they are questioning the authenticity of the document?” Cañete asked.
Aba explained the ruling was intended “to expedite the proceedings.”
Salimbangon vowed to file a complaint against Comelec Regional Director Ray Rene Buac and three other election officers for allegedly conspiring to canvass “fraudulent and manufactured” returns.
Salimbangon wants Election Officers Mohammad Abdulrashid, Gallardo Escobar and Genoveva Sevilla to answer for alleged irregularities in the canvassing. The three election officers composed the first special board that was formed when the canvassing was transferred from Bogo to the Capitol building last May 16.
Sun.Star Cebu repeatedly called Buac but got no answer. A text message was also sent to his mobile phone but he did not reply.
Fed up
Salimbangon has questioned Buac’s fairness when the latter allegedly refused to heed Commissioner Resureccion Borra’s supposed order to use C-Cimpel’s copy of the election returns during the canvassing of the votes from Bogo.
Buac has repeatedly clarified there was no such order from Borra.
Salimbangon insists that election returns were switched in Bogo in favor of his rival, Bogo Mayor Celestino “Tining” Martinez III.
As for Martinez, he said his supporters voluntarily waited outside the Comelec canvassing venue after they became “fed up” by Salimbangon’s supporters, whom they accused of disrupting the proceedings while these were still held at the Capitol.
Salimbangon is allied with Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia’s One Cebu-Kampi.
Martinez, however, said that Salimbangon’s volunteers are actually from Oprra in Cebu City, as well as the cities of Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue, and not from the fourth district at all.
