Friday, May 16, 2008
I never condone cheating: Tomas
CEBU City Mayor Tomas Osmeña said he “never condones” cheating and the use of unsavory tactics in winning, saying he wanted to triumph fair and square.
He said this in reaction to unseated Poblacion Pardo village chief Danilo Lim’s allegation that ballot switching happened in the October 2007 barangay elections, particularly when the ballot boxes were kept at the City Treasurer’s Office (CTO) immediately after the political exercise.
Lim last week said he will ask the Office of the Ombudsman- Visayas to investigate the City Government, particularly the CTO.
Lim lost in a recount of the ballots cast in last year’s elections, when he won over former barangay councilor Felix Dasmariñas by 52 votes.
He said he noticed that in precincts where he supposedly have a lead of seven votes, for example, the recount result showed he was the one who lost by the same number of votes to Dasmariñas.
Revision
Lim is known to be a vocal critic of City Hall, which his lawyer Ervin Estandarte said could be the reason that the court resolved the revision the way it did.
In a 21-page ruling released last May 8, the Municipal Trial Court in Cities said Lim actually lost in the barangay elections.
The court declared Dasmariñas the winner, 2,979 to 2,845, or a lead of 134 votes. It said some votes meant for one got counted in favor of the other, and vice versa.
Yesterday, Osmeña said Lim’s claim was normal because “in elections, there are no losers, just winners and those who say they are cheated.”
But, he said, he will not resort to that just to help an ally.
“I will never condone such thing. Fair is fair,” the mayor said.
Allegation
Dasmariñas, in an earlier interview with Sun.Star Cebu, said the mayor kept his hands off the barangay elections, and has not also given any aid when he filed his election protest and demanded a vote recount.
Osmeña said Lim is just like his ally, former city mayor Alvin Garcia, who Osmeña said accused teachers of cheating, but failed to come up with a single affidavit.
Garcia, after losing to Osmeña for the second time in 2004, withdrew from the public’s eye, and “retired.”
“Everyone expects to win. If they don’t, they think they are cheated,” Osmeña said. (RHM)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (May 16, 2008 issue)
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