Wednesday, July 25, 2007 Court junks protest v. San Fernando mayor
THE court battle between the winning and losing mayoralty candidates of San Fernando is over for now.
Yesterday, Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Gilbert Moises dismissed the election protest filed by defeated candidate Renee Canoy against San Fernando Mayor Lakambini Reluya.
With the dismissal of Canoy’s petition, the recounting of votes was also stopped.
Of the 155 precincts, 42 have already been recounted before Branch 18.
But lawyer Norlando Osano, who is representing Canoy, believes they “still have an avenue to pursue their case.” Osano said they might be filing a motion for reconsideration or an appeal.
Renee lost to Reluya by a mere 40 votes.
In an order issued yesterday, Judge Moises said that after a thorough evaluation of the arguments presented, the court finds in favor of Reluya.
The court agreed with Reluya that the failure of Canoy to specify the precincts where widespread election fraud and irregularities allegedly occurred is a fatal omission and goes to the very substance of the protest.
According to the Rules of Procedure in Election Contests Before the Courts Involving Elective Municipal and Barangay Officials, the particular precincts and votes in the protested precincts are needed for the election protest.
“The intent of the rules is clear; to narrow down the issues in order to achieve an expeditious, inexpensive and just determination of election cases,” said Moises.
The court also noted that no particulars have been alleged to support the claim that mayoralty candidate Edilberto Canoy has been used or set up as a nuisance candidate.
According to Moises’ order, “as far as the record is concerned, Edilberto Canoy was a mayoralty candidate of San Fernando, who can vote and be voted upon. Protestant claim that all Canoy votes should be credited to her has no legal basis.”
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) earlier junked Renee’s petition to declare Edilberto a nuisance candidate.
“Even if the Comelec will rule him (Edilberto) out as a nuisance candidate, the Canoy votes cannot be credited automatically in her (Renee) favor. Without specifics, it would be presumptuous to conclude that all the voters who wrote Canoy in their ballots were all rooting for the protestant to the exclusion of Edilberto,” Moises added.
In her election protest, Canoy claimed that her opponent employed “guns, goons and gold” during the elections last May 14.
Renee, the wife of former mayor Antonio Canoy, also alleged that aside from fraud and irregularities, Reluya fielded another candidate with the same surname as her, which resulted to the disenfranchisement of at least a thousand voters.
Reluya denied all the allegations and countered that the failure of Renee’s petition to specify the precincts where widespread election fraud allegedly occurred is “a fatal omission and goes to the very substance of the protest.” (KNT)
