Compostela poll mess: Comelec Cebu gearing up for ordered recount

CEBU, Philippines - Officials of the Commission on Elections in Cebu are getting ready for the recount of election returns of the May 10, 2010 elections for Compostela town as soon as they get the final order from the Comelec-Manila.

This after the Comelec 2nd Division annulled the proclamation of the mayor, vice mayor and eight councilors of the said municipality.

Both Comelec-7 Regional Director Rene Buac and Cebu provincial election Supervisor Lionel Marco Castillano told The FREEMAN they have not yet received a copy of the order.

Castillano said that once he gets the order, it will still be referred to the Comelec regional legal division.

Buac explained that the Comelec still has to give five days from receipt of the order for the disadvantaged party to file a motion for reconsideration.

If no party asks for reconsideration after the lapse of the given period, Buac said that will be the time they will implement the order.

Buac said they already have advised the Municipal Board of Canvassers of Compostela to be ready.

The Comelec 2nd Division ordered the MBOC of Compostela to reconvene and canvass again all the “authentic” election returns in the May 10, 2010 elections and proclaim the rightful winners.

It was former mayor Ritchie Wagas who filed the petition to annul the proclamation of Joel Quiño, Vice Mayor-elect Maria Antoinette Dangoy and eight municipal councilors.

Wagas, in his petition, said the audit print log of the MBOC’s machine did not reflect the electronic election returns from 14 clustered precincts.

Despite this, the certificate of canvass and statement of votes included the 14 precincts in question.

The Comelec 2nd Division Resolution dated January 12, 2011 said that Wagas “suspects that the appearance of the ERs pertaining to the 14 clustered precincts was manipulated, in the sense that they were already previously stored in the consolidating machine.”

Presiding Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer and Commissioners Lucenito Tagle and Elias Usoph granted Wagas’s petition to annul the proclamation.

The other winners whose proclamations were also annulled are Dangoy and councilors-elect Josephine Abing, Joy Ann Cabatingan, Tessa Cang, Wilfredo Calo, Homer Canen, Jose Cagang, Alberto Cabatingan and Francisco Oliverio.

In his petition, Wagas asked the MBOC to convene again to canvass the votes, after correcting the allegedly falsified documents and flash cards.

He asked for a manual recount, if necessary.

Last July 16, Quiño and all the winning candidates filed petitions for certiorari and/or prohibition before the Supreme Court, but these were denied.   (FREEMAN NEWS)