HRET affirms Benhur's win

CEBU, Philippines - The House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal dismissed the election protest of former Bogo Mayor Celestino “Tining” Martinez III and affirmed the proclamation of 4th District Rep. Benhur Salimbangon and declared the latter as the duly elected representative of the said district.

In its 48-page decision, the HRET chaired by Supreme Court Associate Justice Consuelo Ynares-Santiago stated that after painstakingly resolving all issues raised by both parties, the Tribunal concluded that protestee (Salimbangon) won by a plurality margin of 453 votes as fourth district representative in the May 14, 2007 national and local elections.

The total votes in the contested precincts, after appreciation of evidence, showed that Martinez III got 66,655 votes while Salimbangon garnered 67,108 votes.

To recall, on July 9, 2007 or almost two months after the election, Salimbangon garnered a total of 67,277 votes while Martinez III got 67,173 votes or a difference of 104 votes.

On July 18, 2007, Martinez III filed an election protest ad cautelam and on July 19, he filed a manifestation and motion to convert the said protest into a regular protest which was granted by the Tribunal, protesting all 1,129 precincts in the fourth district.

The election protest of Martinez III is based primarily on the ground than an estimated total of 300 votes more or less with “Martinez” and “C. Martinez” written on line for Representative were not counted for him by the Board of Election Inspectors considering that there was another congressional candidate who has the same surname in the person of Edilito C. Martinez.

Edilito C. Martinez, however, was officially declared a nuisance candidate only on June 12, 2007 or 29 days after the said election.

His name was included in the list of candidates for the said position, which means that there were “two congressional candidates on the day of the election with ‘Martinez’ as surname.”

Martinez III cited six other grounds in the said election protest including that votes reflected in the election returns were unlawfully increased in favor of Salimbangon while votes for him were unlawfully decreased in several protested precincts.

On August 23, 2007, Salimbangon filed his answer with counter-protest stating among others that the minutes of voting inside the ballot boxes in all the protested precincts contain no recorded objections regarding straying of votes as claimed by Martinez III.

Instead, Salimbangon in his counter-protest, protesting the 954 precincts in the district on the grounds of coercion, intimidation, massive vote-buying, “lansadera,” misreading, miscounting and/or misappreciation of votes and other electoral anomalies and irregularities committed or perpetrated by Martinez III and his followers and cohorts.

The Tribunal in order to determine as to who is the real winner the 1,129 precincts were classified into three categories based on the features and situation obtaining in the ballots.

Category A refers to the less controversial, the 961 precincts; Category B, the 12 precincts without ballots and Category C, as the most controversial 156 precincts.

The Tribunal considered the 961 precincts out of the 1,129 precincts to be less controversial after finding that there were no spurious ballots found inside the ballot boxes.

The 156 precincts from Bogo, Daan Bantayan and Madridejos, according to the Tribunal has no doubt that the ballot boxes containing the official ballots cast in the said precincts were replaced with fake/spurious or unofficial ones, hence, have been tampered with adding, “cannot be relied upon, as they do not reflect the true will of the electorate.”

The Tribunal likewise sustained the decision of the BEI in considering the ballots with “Martinez” or “C. Martinez” only written on line for Representative as stray and not credited to any party, which means that the 5,401 ballots with “Martinez” or “C. Martinez” were denied because there is no way of determining the real intention of the voter.

The Tribunal however sympathized with Martinez III that he is the victim of Comelec’s inaction in failing to decide the petition to disqualify Edilito C. Martinez as nuisance candidate on or before the May 14, 2007 elections.

“As it is, the delay committed by the Comelec in deciding the petition to disqualify Edilito C. Martinez as nuisance candidate on or before May 14, 2007 election did not only cause injustice to the protestant but worst, had resulted to the disenfranchisement of 5,401 electorates whose votes could have changed the number garnered by the parties herein if not changed altogether the outcome of the election itself,” the decision reads.

 The Tribunal in its decision which was promulgated on May 28, 2009 also refers this case to the Commission on Election for appropriate action in view of the seriousness of the fraud and irregularities committed after the canvass of votes in the said case.

The Tribunal added that the Comelec shall particularly investigate the municipal treasurers of Bogo City and the municipalities of Daanbantayan and Madridejos as said officers being the official custodian involved after the May 14, 2007 elections, and all other persons who may have had any participation in the commission of the fraud.

Aside from Ynares-Santiago, the HRET is composed of SC Associate Justices Renato Corona, Antonio Eduardo Nachura, Representatives Mauricio Domogan (Lone District, Baguio City), Fredenil Castro (Second District, Capiz), Roberto Cajes (Second District, Bohol), Solomon Chungalao (Lone District, Ifugao), Florencio Miraflores (Lone District, Aklan) and Jsutin Marc Chipeco (Second District, Laguna) as members.—/NLQ (THE FREEMAN)