“NO FURTHER comment.”
That was the reaction of the camp of former Bacolod Mayor Evelio “Bing” Leonardia over the dismissal of the electoral protest it filed questioning the result of the May 9, 2022 elections in the city where now Mayor Alfredo Abelardo “Albee” Benitez won over him by over 64,000 vote margin.
In a statement issued by Dr. Chris Sorongon, spokesperson of Leonardia, he said that their lawyers have yet to receive a copy of the decision of the Second Division of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
“As such, we cannot comment yet on the reported decision being unaware of the reasons allegedly made by the Second Division (of the Comelec) but rest assured that our protest complied with all requirements,” Sorongon said.
He said their camp will exhaust all available legal remedies to ensure justice will be done to the voters of Bacolod City.
"We are wondering where the sources of these alleged documents (of the decision) are coming from,” Sorongon said, adding that they are the real party in interest but their counsels have not furnished a copy of the decision.
On May 20, Leonardia, through legal counsels Marcus Vaflor and Jireh Alimon, lodged a post-proclamation protest before the Comelec central office in Manila, calling for a manual recount of all 450 clustered precincts and declaring failure of elections.
Leonardia said there was a massive vote-buying and fake voters who were allowed to cast their ballots.
The Comelec Second Division in dismissing the protest maintained that it was “insufficient in form and content.”
Comelec Presiding Commissioner Marlon Casquejo and Commissioner Rey Bulay, who penned the decision on September 7, said the case was referred to the Law Department for further investigation in compliance with the Comelec Rules of Procedure.
The eight-page decision stated that the process of manual recount is not a tool intended to replace proof with suppositions or evidence with assumptions.
“Baseless and unsubstantiated protest remains impermissible in order to fully protect the true will of the electorate as truthfully reflected in the results of the elections,” the decision also reads.
Casquejo said that though defeat in any election is desolating for the losing candidate, an election protest must not be used as a vindication of a lost opportunity to serve the public, or at worst an unjustified assertion of wounded pride.
For his part, Benitez had sought the dismissal of the election protest, saying the allegations and evidence used by Leonardia were “false, misleading and imaginary since they were unsubstantiated and self-serving.”
He also noted that the protest was grossly deficient in form and content.