Saturday, May 10, 2008 Unseated bry. captain to question court ruling
UNSEATED Pardo Barangay Captain Danilo Lim is questioning the court ruling that stripped him of his victory. Lim, through lawyer Ervin Estandarte, will also be filing an appeal before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Manila.
Lim also said he will be filing a petition for injunction to stop Fermin Badayos Dasmariñas from taking over.
Estandarte said yesterday there’s a “bigger and mysterious issue” behind the outcome of the revision of ballots.
Lim was declared the winner a day after the elections but Dasmariñas filed an election protest. But Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MTCC) Judge Monalila Tecson ruled, after a recount of votes, that Dasmariñas won the elections.
Changed
Estandarte speculated that some entries in the ballots, supposed to have been safely kept at the Office of the City Treasurer for the revision proceedings, were changed.
This, Estandarte argued, was the only way Lim could lose votes in the revision. He then presented the April 17, 2008 letter signed by schoolteachers that comprised the Board of Election Tellers in eight Poblacion Pardo precincts. In the letter, the teachers said they are standing by the results of the original count – 2,910 to 2,858, in favor of Lim.
Lim is noted to be a vocal critic of City Hall. Estandarte said this could be a reason why the court resolved the revision the way it did.
In a 21-page ruling released Thursday, the Municipal Trial Court in Cities said Lim actually lost in the Oct. 29, 2007 barangay elections. It declared his closest contender, Dasmariñas the winner – 2,979 to 2,845. It said some votes meant for one got counted in favor of the other and vice versa.
Lim, meanwhile, said he will ask the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate the Cebu City Treasurer’s Office.
Lim alleged that ballot switching happened, particularly when the ballot boxes were kept at the CTO office immediately after the elections.
Surprise
Cebu City Treasurer Tessie Camarillo yesterday expressed surprise why her office will be dragged into the issue. Although she said she has no problems with it, she stressed she did nothing wrong in the performance of her duties.
“What’s my interest in this? Kinsa gani to iyang kaatbang? Wala man gani gyud ko kaila ni Lim, samot pa ng iyang kontra. Pardo tood amo-a pero sa Cogon Pardo (I don’t know Lim or his political rival),” she told Sun.Star Cebu.
Cebu City south district election officer Edwin Cadungog said the decision declaring Dasmariñas winner is not yet executory because Lim still has five days to submit an appeal. Lim said they will file the appeal on Monday. (Rachel O. Capapas, Silliman University Masscomm Intern/RHM)
