Alleging fraud in some precincts Tining files protest vs Benhur at HRET

Defeated congressional candidate Celestino “Tining” Martinez III has formally filed an election protest before the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal against winning candidate Benhur Salimbangon for the hotly contested seat in the 4th District of Cebu Province.

In the 11-page complaint submitted before the HRET last week, Martinez argued that Salimbangon won because of electoral fraud and anomalies in some polling precincts.

He alleged that there was rampant vote buying, violence, intimidation of voters and the members of the Board of Election Inspectors, as well as, rampant violation of election laws, rules and resolutions issued by the Commission on Elections perpetrated by the camp of Salimbangon.

The 4th District is comprised of the municipalities of Bantayan, Daanbantayan, Madridejos, Medellin, San Remegio, Santa Fe, Tabogon, and Tabuelan and Bogo City.

Martinez said that in some precincts, votes intended for him were not counted because of misreading, miscounting, misappreciation of ballots and the failure of the Board of Election Inspectors since the name written on the ballot was “Martinez” or “C. Martinez” in the proper space for Representatives.

The candidacy of Tining was derailed when a motorcycle for hire or habal-habal driver, Edilito C. Martinez filed his candidacy for Representative of the 4th District.

“Obviously, this was a wicked and desperate scheme to derail the candidacy of Celestino A. Martinez III by having somebody with the same surname file his candidacy for the same elective position,” the election protest read.

Martinez immediately filed a petition to disqualify Edilito C. Martinez before the Commission on Elections, which was docketed as SPA Case No. 07-133.

However, the Comelec failed to decide the Petition before the May 14 elections as their decision to disqualify Edilito C. Martinez came out only on June 12.

As a result of the failure of the Comelec to decide on the Petition before the May 14 elections, the votes cast for “Martinez” or “C. Martinez” were not duly credited to Tining as they were considered as stray votes.

“This situation was prevalent in all the precincts comprising the 4th District of Cebu because of the confusion brought about by the candidacy of Edilito C. Martinez. The confusion brought about by the candidacy of a nuisance candidate with the same surname as the protestant deprived the latter of valid genuine votes cast in his favor,” the petition said. 

Tining argued that all votes cast for “Martinez” and “C. Martinez” should now be counted as valid votes for him considering that the Comelec already disqualified Edilito C. Martinez as a nuisance candidate.

Based on their Statement of Votes by precinct, Tining said that an estimated total of 300 votes more or less were declared as stray per municipality.

“Inevitably, these stray votes when counted in favor of the protestant, the presumptive lead of 104 votes by Salimbangon will be immediately wiped out and overcome by the protestant as he will be credited additional votes of more or less three thousand votes in the final tally of votes received by him during the May 14, 2007 election,”

But before hearing on their merits of protest, the Martinez camp asks the Honorable Tribunal to issue an order that will direct the Provincial Election Supervisor and the Municipal Treasurers to take precautionary measures in order to safeguard the integrity and the authenticity of the ballot boxes.

This also includes the contents and the election documents used in the May 14 elections, more particularly the voters registration records, book of voters ,and the election day computerized voters list (EDCVL) with voting records of the protested precincts.

Martinez also pointed out that the counting of votes was even derailed when Salimbangon’s camp effected an illegal citizen’s arrest against members of the second set of special board of canvassers. The alleged illegal arrest was made after the said board denied the objections raised by Salimbangon’s counsels for being a pre-proclamation controversy which is not allowed for Members of the House of Representatives, according to the protest.

Because of the illegal arrest of the board, they said that a third set of board of canvassers was created which convened on May 22. During the resumption of canvass, the counsels of Salimbangon pursued their same set of objections, which have been validly ruled upon by the second board of canvassers.

The third board of canvassers initially denied the objections raised by Salimbangon’s counsels on the ground that the board is a ministerial body without quasi judicial authority to rule on the matter. Thus, the objections by Salimbangon’s camp were merely noted by the board and it proceeded with the canvassing.– (/NLQ)