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Thursday, July 05, 2007
15 Bogo election returns 'fake'
By Katrina N. Tabanao
With Jeanette P. Malinao & Minerva B. Gerodias
CEBU CITY -- The Commission on Elections (Comelec) found the 15 questioned election returns (ERs) from Bogo “spurious and manufactured” and ordered the canvassers to use other authentic copies instead.
The special board of canvassers was also told to reconvene immediately and continue canvassing, in an 18-page resolution handed down July 3 by Commissioners Florentino Tuason Jr., Rene Sarmiento, and Nicodemo Ferrer of the Second Division.
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“We are convinced that the questioned election returns should be considered spurious and manufactured,” the commissioners said, pointing out some differences in those ERs when compared with the copies obtained by the church-based election watchdog C-Cimpel.
Before the canvassing was suspended, congressional candidate Benhur Salimbangon obtained 66,484 votes, while Celestino Martinez III got 65,172 votes, for a margin of 1,312 votes in favor of Salimbangon.
If the authentic copies of the 15 ERs--such as those held by C-Cimpel--were to be canvassed, the additional votes would be 1,706 for Martinez and 702 for Salimbangon.
“If we add these additional votes from the said 15 election returns that were submitted and found to be authentic, the total net margin in favor of Salimbangon would now only be 308 votes,” said the commission.
'Volatile’
Lawyer Eddie Aba, head of the special board, said they may be able to reconvene Friday. He has yet to consult Commissioner Resurreccion Borra about the pending request to finish the canvassing in Manila.
The resolution was silent on this.
Comelec Regional Director Ray Rene Buac supports that request, first made by Provincial Election Officer Lionel Marco Castillano.
“Having personally experienced the tension and volatility of the previous canvass held at the Provincial Capitol and in the Regional Office, the imminent danger to life and limbs, not only of the members of the Board of Canvassers, the support staff, and the rest of the Comelec personnel but also of the supporters of the candidates… the transfer of the canvass will be a wise and sound decision," Buac said in his June 30 letter to Commissioner Borra.
Castillano and Cebu Provincial Police Director Carmelo Valmoria agreed there is “a strong probability” that lives and properties would be at risk if the canvassing of the disputed returns and the proclamation of winners for the fourth district are held in Cebu.
In Manila, Buac said in his letter, there will be no need for “a considerable number” of police and soldiers, traffic enforcers, and fire trucks to keep chaos from breaking out.
308 votes
Told about the 308-vote margin the Comelec computed, lawyer Inocencio dela Serna said that based on the Comelec’s partial official count, excluding the results of the 15 questioned election returns, Salimbangon led by only 850 votes.
“So if i-add nato, daog gihapon si Tining (Even if we add the tally from the 15, Tining still wins),” said dela Serna.
He also revealed the Martinez camp will ask for a temporary restraining order from the Supreme Court to stop the canvassing.
Lawyer Achilles Cañete, also of the Martinez camp, asked how the commissioners concluded that the returns were manufactured.
“We have to remember that not all commissioners know the secrets in determining the authenticity of the election returns,” he said. When Sun.Star clarified if he really meant that not all election commissioners can tell whether the returns are genuine or not, he emphatically said, “Yes.”
Cañete believes that the commission erred in acting on the petition of Salimbangon, because such matters should have been resolved only by the House Electoral Tribunal, in an election protest.
“The examination of the ERs can only be done by them (the tribunal),” he said.
Salimbangon’s mobile phone was off when Sun.Star made repeated calls last night, while Tining Martinez did not answer.
Transfers
Two days after the elections, the canvassing of Bogo’s returns was transferred amid tight security from the northern town to the Provincial Capitol.
Within a week, however, tension at the Capitol prompted the transfer to the Comelec regional office at the end of the same boulevard, where the canvassing proceeded until May 23.
Admitting “serious doubts” on the authenticity of the 15 ERs, the special board headed by Attorney Aba flew the returns to Comelec-Manila.
In its ruling, the division upheld the observations Aba’s board raised, such as the different texture and color of the page containing the congressional results and the differences in the election inspectors’ signatures.
The commission also considered at least nine affidavits of election inspectors and poll clerks, who confirmed that the certificate of votes given to Salimbangon’s watchers were “true and genuine, and the entries therein are correct and accurate.”
These affidavits were presented by Salimbangon’s lawyers.
'Simple errors’
The Martinez camp has argued that by canvassing the same ER’s entries for the Senate and party-list elections, the BOC “stamped with certainty the genuineness” of the questioned documents.
But the division ruled: “It is evident from the naked eye that the page of the election returns for the position of congressman is clearly different from the other pages of the election returns. This is a manifest and clear indication that the page containing the votes for the congressman position is a substituted and manufactured return.”
“If one page is glaringly different from the others, then that page is spurious,” said the commission.
However, the commission dismissed, for lack of merit, Salimbangon’s questions on the canvassing of seven ERs by the second special board of canvassers headed by Gallardo Escobar. (This was when the canvassing was still held at the Capitol.)
Escobar headed the board that one of Salimbangon’s lawyers tried to place under a citizen’s arrest for “electoral sabotage.”
The commissioners said that the grounds raised as far as those seven ERs were concerned were “mere technicalities and simple errors.” (Sun.Star Cebu)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Dumaguete. (July 5, 2007 issue)
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