CAGAYAN DE ORO City Mayor-elect Vicente Emano has taken cudgels for City Hall official whose admission has put in question the administration’s possible role in the mysterious dumping of election materials a day after the May 10 polls.
In defending City Economic Enterprises Department (CEED) Manager Federico Gempesaw, Emano appears to have confirmed his party’s use of a government vehicle to dispose of the unused sample ballots belonging to administration candidates.
Gempesaw also broke his silence over a month after his name was first dragged into the issue. Several scavengers at the dumpsite reportedly saw him supervising the unloading of the poll materials, which include Compact Flash (CF) cards and bundled election returns.
In an interview with dxCC-RMN Monday evening, Gempesaw said he requested the Barangay Assistance Center (BAC) for the use of one of its vehicles to dispose of the unused sample ballots belonging to PaDayon Pilipino (PaDayon) candidates. BAC was formerly headed by Gempesaw.
The sample ballots, he said, were stored in his residence in Barangay Carmen. He had the election materials discarded at the Upper Dagong landfill in the afternoon of May 11 using the BAC vehicle bearing license plate JDB-507.
That white mini-dump truck turned out to be the same vehicle that dumped the sacks of election materials hours earlier. Landfill personnel logged the first dumping to be around 3:10 a.m., and the second around 3:45 a.m.
Gempesaw affirmed the PaDayon sample ballots were dumped around 3:10 p.m., while the second was around 3:45 p.m.
Three days later, landfill scavengers reported the discovery of elections materials stuffed in sacks, later claimed lost by local election officials in Cagayan de Oro.
Among the Comelec-owned documents and election devices were sample ballots belonging to PaDayon candidates. They were retrieved the following day, May 15, from a junkyard in Barangay Puntod.
But Emano sees nothing strange with the baffling coincidences, though he admitted it was he who ordered the dumping of their party’s sample ballots.
“Gipalabay ko kay human naman ang piliay. Nagsobra man gud ang among mga sample ballots kay gawas sa among gipahimo, daghan usab ang nag-donar (I ordered the dumping because the election is over. There was an excess of sample ballots because aside from what we’ve allocated, there were also donations),” said Emano, the outgoing vice mayor.
Emano said no Comelec-owned poll materials were included in the discarded PaDayon sample ballots, as Gempesaw had insisted.
Gempesaw and the PaDayon founder, however, offered no explanation to the use of government property in the dumping of their party’s sample ballots.
At the height of the campaign, PaDayon was accused of using government vehicles to ferry supporters to rallies.
Gempesaw is also facing questions over his partisan activities.
A lawyer for defeated mayoralty candidate Rolando Uy vowed to charge Gempesaw for electioneering and engaging in partisan political activities in the last elections.
“Legal action will be taken against Gempesaw because as a government employee, he is required by law to remain apolitical, especially so that he is not just an ordinary employee but a department chief,” said lawyer Evangeline Carrasco.
Gempesaw started being a propagandist for Emano when the latter entered the city politics and won the mayoralty race in 1998.
He was Emano’s most visible political mouthpiece when the mayor twice sought and won reelection. He would continue holding that role when the term-limited Emano slid down as vice mayor in 2007, and when Emano staged a comeback in the May 10 elections.
In between his partisan activities, however, Gempesaw occupied major positions in City Hall. He held positions in the City Public Services Office, City Social Welfare Office and Barangay Assistance Center.
His latest positions puts him in-charge over market and terminal operations of the city.
The discovery of election paraphernalia in the dumpsite has been linked by Uy’s camp to “massive” poll cheating.
Uy lost to Emano by a narrow margin of over 2,000 votes.
Emano has denied any involvement in the supposed cheating.
Several attempts by Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro to get Gempesaw’s side failed. The City Hall official has avoided media interviews since the so-called “Basurahan” issue broke out.
Emano, meanwhile, has reputation to grant interviews to media outlets of his own choice. (Annabelle L. Ricalde/Danilo V. Adorador III)