PCL declares election failure

PCL declares election failure

THE Philippine Councilors League (PCL) has declared the national election of the 11th National Congress a failure due to some discrepancies on its voting system.

PCL, through its official Facebook page announced on Thursday, February 27, the postponement of the poll due to failure of election caused by a glitch of the software system, which was used during the voting.

In a separate post, PCL said an emergency meeting of the National Board was called at about 5 p.m. to discuss the PCL National Elections.

Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Undersecretary Epimaco Densing and Bureau of Local Government Supervision head Odilon Pasaraba said the election failed after several tests of the automated system showed errors and glitches.

Both recommended to the national board to declare a failure of elections.

After the discussion, the board passed a resolution postponing the election to a later date and an Ad Hoc Committee is formed to coordinate with DILG to set the date of elections within 60 days starting Thursday.

However, the PCL said the committee will make a recommendation to the national board within 10 days to determine whether the election will be at the regional or provincial level.

The board also passed a resolution to conduct an immediate investigation on the failure of the automated system and to report its recommendations to the national board.

Councilor Jesciel Richard Salceda of Legazpi City, Albay, who is running as national chair proposed to continue with the elections manually. However, he was outnumbered by the councilors who opt to postpone the election.

“It was defeated by a majority vote of NB as it will deprive the great majority of councilors (who have left the venue already) to participate in the elections thru no fault of their own; continuing with the elections manually without the necessary guidelines and with only a minority of councilors present will not be able to determine the true will of the majority,” PCL said in a statement.

Salceda, along with his opponent, Davao City Councilor Danilo Dayanghirang accepted the resolution, and abstained from voting.

Dayanghirang, in a previous report, claimed that a vote buying incident is happening in the 2020 Philippine Councilors League (PCL) national election.

The Davao City councilor, in a public post on his Facebook page on February 20, accused the camp of Salceda for engaging in massive vote buying by depositing, through a law firm, a manager’s check amounting P7.3 million to the PCL’s bank account.

“Sadly, in the past days and even yesterday, blatant and massive vote buying happened, each of us undeniably witnessed how rampant it was. Since day 1 of the campaign, PCL was trapped inevitably from vote buying. And we do not leave these things hanging, a clamour of investigating all of these as I inhibit myself in the process to avoid biases and most importantly uphold delicadeza,” Dayanghirang said in his Facebook post on Friday, February 28.

Salceda, in a previous article, had denied Dayanghirang’s allegation. He even urged him to show evidence of his accusation.

He added, “The unfolding of events made me realize that PCL as an institution was tainted with all the dogmatic pretentions on top of the politics of money”.

Despite the incident, he said all the regular PCL programs will continue such as medical, burial, and calamity assistance; advocacy for continued voluntary Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) contribution to ascertain political retirement pensions; and support the amendment of the constitution.

He also urged councilors to unite and rise above these challenges and maintain our pledge, “service above self”.

Naga City Councilor Mila Raquid Arroyo in a Facebook live interview expressed her disappointment to the national board for the delay of the postponement announcement.

“Hindi man lang nila pinapangalagaan ang mga konsehal na naghintay dito.

Arroyo also motioned to have the current PCL position vacant, while the next election schedule is yet being finalized.

A total of 17,163 councilors under 11th National Congress voted during the election.

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