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Sunday, January 25, 2004
House confirms 2001 poll fraud
By Grecar Nilles
CEBU -- The House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) has junked the election protest filed against Rep. Antonio Cuenco (Cebu City, south) by his political nemesis Aristotle Batuhan.
In a 40-page resolution promulgated last Jan. 22, the HRET, which is made up of three Supreme Court justices and three representatives each from the majority and minority blocs, also noted that "serious fraud and irregularities" were committed after the canvassing of votes.
This finding prompted the HRET to refer the case to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to investigate the city treasurer, who was custodian of the ballot boxes after the elections, and other persons who may have participated in the commission of fraud.
In effect, the HRET affirmed the victory of Cuenco over Batuhan in the congressional race in the May 2001 elections, with a margin of 3,296 votes, or one vote less than when he was proclaimed winner.
Cuenco, in a press conference, said he will no longer go after Batuhan by filing a criminal case against him.
"The people here are intelligent about the fraudulent act done. They know how to appreciate the decision. He (Batuhan) ordered it, but I can't prove it. He has a lot to answer for with the people," Cuenco said.
Batuhan is out of the country.
`Too new'
His campaign manager Nonoy Mapula, contacted for comment, said Batuhan has again become a victim of the second phase of cheating; the first time was the May 2001 elections.
"This recent decision will even enhance the candidacy of Batuhan. But we have to double or triple our preparation against any forms of cheating that will be done by the other party," Mapula said.
In the ruling, the HRET said they discovered a "host of evidence that is more than sufficient" to establish tampering of the ballot boxes and their contents in the 22 precincts after the elections.
They said the spurious ballots look "new, crisp, devoid of ink stains, finger smudges, and other marks of use" that are characteristics of other ballots cast during the elections.
"The tribunal is convinced that the substitution of ballots was committed after the election, such that ballots cast for (Cuenco) as reflected in the election returns and tally boards were surreptitiously taken away and substituted or replaced in part with spurious ballots bearing the name of (Batuhan)," the ruling read.
When the ballot boxes were opened and the ballots revised in 22 precincts, Batuhan's votes increased by 668, while Cuenco's votes decreased by 800.
The HRET opened a total of 241 ballot boxes from the 22 protested precincts.
`Unfair'
"All considered, this tribunal finds that the official ballots cast in the 22 precincts have been tampered with by the introduction of spurious ballots and ballots with insertions of (Batuhan's) name by persons other than the registered voters. It bears emphasis that the irregularities in those precincts are not merely isolated incidents but rather a scheme consciously adopted in an attempt to gain more votes for (Batuhan)," the ruling read.
Mapula said it is unfair for the HRET to consider the election returns instead of the ballots, when the protest was for the revision of the ballots because they believed there was a misappreciation and misreading of the ballots.
"Between Batuhan and Cuenco, Cuenco has the opportunity nga manghilabot (to interfere). It is so unfair to use the election returns because the HRET did not mention that the ballot boxes were tampered or destroyed. So, the ballots were real," Mapula said.
But in the ruling, the tribunal said the election returns in the 22 precincts have no signs of alterations, unlike the ballots.
"In view of the presence of watchers, other voters, supporters of various candidates and other concerned citizens and an accredited Comelec watchdog during the appreciation of ballots at the precinct level and in the canvassing of election returns, we do not believe that such magnitude of misreading might have been committed in Cebu City," the ruling read.
Mapula said they will not let this "injustice" done by Cuenco go without a fight.
"If there is injustice, this should not be allowed to continue. We will surely take action on this recent form of cheating," he said.
(January 25, 2004 issue)
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