WHEN it became obvious that he was losing the Talisay City mayoralty election to long shot JVR Delos Reyes in 2013, Eddie Gullas called some of his closest friends. Some of them urged him to file a protest as JVR’s lead was very slim. You’re a sportsman, a very respected one, I told him over the phone. I’m sure you will do what you have always done in those games that we lost fair and square. That very night, he conceded.
He could have cried to high heavens that he had been cheated by the PCOS machines and protested the results of the election with the Comelec. But he was too honorable to rob his opponent of the glory of a hard-earned victory. Besides, he did not want to discredit the system under which he had won so many great electoral battles just so he could massage a bruised ego.
Instead of holding press conferences to remind everyone that he was still politically relevant, Eddiegul mostly kept himself out of the limelight, quietly rebuilding his network which had obviously failed him. In the meantime, JVR went on self-destruct mode with such speed that halfway through his term, he was hardly recognizable as the upstart who disrupted the Talisay political establishment with a victory that none expected.
In 2016, Eddiegul and JVR squared off again. It turned out to be a no-contest as Gullas routed an overmatched Delos Reyes, his lead about 15 times more than his margin of loss three years earlier.
If he had listened to some of his lawyers and friends and contested the results with the Comelec, his petition would still have remained unresolved by the time the 2016 elections were held. He would have spent an enormous sum for nothing. But the 1958 national “Basketball Coach of the Year” knew better. He did not have a huge ego to begin with. He saw no need to save face.
In 2016 after he lost his reelection bid to Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, then Mayor Michael Rama announced that he was filing a protest because of election fraud. Big mistake, I told myself. Assuming that indeed he had been cheated (Rama could not believe that he lost while seven of his teammates, including his vice mayor, won), can he have the results reversed before the next elections?
In fairness to Rama, it may not have been wounded pride that drove him to embark on something that is known to be a notoriously hopeless endeavor. Maybe, he just wanted the rule of law, which was the mantra of his reign, to prevail by proving that he won.
Rama paid good money for his protest. He must have also spent a fortune on collateral expenses such as attorney’s fees and honararia for his revisors. And what did he gain after all the trouble that he went through? There was a recount and every now and then his publicist issued statements that his client was leading.
And then complete silence. There was no more mention of the recount. Last May 13 when we had another election, Rama’s case was still pending and Osmeña was still the mayor. At noontime of June 30 when the newly-elected officials shall have been sworn into office, the last nail shall have also been driven on the coffin of Rama’s protest.
Yesterday, I learned that defeated Lapu-Lapu City mayoralty candidate Arturo Radaza has formally protested his loss with the Comelec. I already know what is going to happen. Ask me in 2022.