LAWYER Gina Zayas-Sabio, Cagayan de Oro City Commission on Elections (Comelec) supervisor, said it was illogical for her to be part of any election shenanigan when it would later comeback to haunt her.
That she knew of the dumping of the elections materials at the Upper Dagong sanitary landfill was inconceivable, she said, given that the loss would eventually be blamed on her.
“I’m not yet out of my mind to sabotage my own office,” she told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro by phone. “If many are wondering how this incident came about, then count in the Comelec in.”
She added: “It doesn’t just make sense that we would do something that would destroy my credibility later.”
Unanswered
Still, the City Comelec has left many unanswered questions regarding the supposed loss of election materials in its office.
First, the local Comelec had yet to show a single document that they recorded the alleged loss at the time it was discovered.
The camp of defeated mayoralty candidate Rolando Uy said a Comelec resolution requires local election officials to report to authorities any loss of poll paraphernalia immediately after discovery.
“Comelec procedures state that missing election materials should be posted in a generally-circulated newspaper so that these items can be returned by the finder,” said lawyer Evangeline Carrasco, Uy’s legal counsel.
Zayas-Sabio had earlier explained they did not immediately report the incident as they assumed these got only mixed up with other election paraphernalia in their office.
'Received'
Carrasco, however, noted that the City Comelec “didn’t even at least bother to document the incident” at the time it claimed to have discovered the loss on May 12.
Election Officer II Oona Mei A. Dela Rosa only reported the alleged loss of Compact Flash cards, election returns and other paraphernalia at around 12:30 a.m. of May 15, hours after news broke out that election materials had been found dumped at the sanitary landfill.
Uy’s camp also pointed out that the recovered election materials had been “received” by the City Comelec as indicated in the sealed, brown envelopes containing the poll paraphernalia and other accountable forms such as audit logs.
“There’s no indication that these materials were lost in transit. These were received first by the Comelec before they were found dumped at the landfill,” Carrasco argued.
'Collusion'
Uy’s campaign manager, Barangay Chairperson Eric Salcedo, said Comelec’s “failure” to explain how the election materials got lost pointed to “collusion” among election officials and the PaDayon Pilipino group of mayor-elect Vicente Emano.
“How could we possibly deduce all these circumstantial evidences? These only lead us to believe that there has been collusion or conspiracy to rig the elections,” said Salcedo.
PaDayon, a non-registered political group which is allied with the Partido ng Masang Pilipino, captured all but three seats in all local positions.
The discovery of dumped poll materials, however, could cast doubts over Emano’s 2,137-vote margin win against Uy, candidate of the administration party Lakas-Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino-Christian Muslim Democrats.
Disbelief
Meanwhile, Carrasco voiced suspicions on the sample ballots apparently belonging to PaDayon which were found along with the dumped election materials.
“Were these used as codigo when they pre-shaded the ballots? How did these got mixed up with Comelec properties,” she said.
For her part, Zayas-Sabio maintained she had no idea how all these happened.
“I have nothing to do with all of these and, as I’ve said, we’re also in quandary about how these things happened. I'm still in disbelief,” she said.
She said she was willing to submit herself for investigation in order to clear her name.