Monday, May 28, 2007 Cagas told: Stop picking up fight By Ben O. Tesiorna
A SIMPLE word of warning from Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte in his capacity as the chair of the Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC) to Davao del Sur gubernatorial candidate and incumbent Rep. Doublas Ra Cagas: "Stop looking for trouble."
Duterte said Cagas should stop in order to avoid heating up the already tense situation in Davao del Sur, and just let the Commission on Elections (Comelec) resolve the issue.
"I am asking politicians, especially Congressman Cagas, to wait for the Comelec to rule. And if there's anything that is reasonable but not acceptable, we can always resolve it through legal remedies," Duterte said.
Cagas has been hurling accusations against his rival, Rep. Claude Bautista and the Bautista family, of massive cheating in their hometown of Malita to ensure Claude's victory in the gubernatorial race.
Incidentally, Malita is the second biggest municipality in Davao del Sur with more than 60,000 voting population. Davao del Sur has a total voting population of 481,002.
Sun.Star Davao on Sunday tried getting the reaction of Cagas on Duterte's appeal but the lawmaker did not reply to our query through the phone.
In an earlier interview with a national paper, Cagas was said to be defiant of Duterte’s appeal, saying he will continue with what he is doing since he is not breaking any law.
"Nobody can tell us what to do because we have always been upholding the law," Cagas was quoted as saying.
The lawmaker said they would be keeping a vigil on the provincial canvassing at the Capitol once it resumes. The canvassing is on a recess pending the Comelec en banc’s resolution on the complaints filed by Cagas and Bautista against each other.
If Cagas is all mouth, the Bautistas are meanwhile keeping their silence on the issues confronting the election in their province.
The Bautistas filed their complaints before the Comelec recently along with a video footage of what they called vote manipulation perpetrated by Cagas in Sulop.
Cagas, however, denied the accusation saying that the video footage was manipulated to make it appear that cheating was indeed perpetrated inside the Comelec office in Sulop.
In a telephone interview Friday, Cagas said the report of a television network allegedly made it appear that there was vote-rigging when in fact the activity therein was just making some corrections on the errors committed by the board of canvassers.
Cagas said the municipal board of canvassers (MBOC) earlier informed all concerned parties that there were some errors committed by the canvassers when the votes were added.
"Pero instead na mubalik tong abugado sa NPC, iyang gipabalik ang cameraman. Wala may tikas ato kay pati gani kay Claude nitaas ug 1,000 votes parehas ra sa akoa (The lawyer of the National People's Coalition, the political party of Cagas' opponent, did not come to witness the correction and instead sent over a cameraman. There was no cheating there since even Claude Bautista's votes increased by 1,000 just like mine), Cagas said.
While the television report claimed Comelec officials in the national capital were aghast over the footage of alleged cheating, it, likewise, noted that Sulop Comelec employees did not seem to beacting suspiciously since they were even waving at the camera while they were supposed to be "cheating".
It was learned that Cagas's total number of votes after the corrections was increased by a mere 680 votes while his rival's votes, Rep. Claude Bautista, increased by 1,000 votes.
