Barangay Bacayan COMELEC orders proclamation of “real winner”

CEBU, Philippines - The Comelec en banc has concurred with the ruling of the commission’s second division granting the petition to change the entry of the winning candidates of Barangay Bacayan, after it was found out that the name of Emelia Borgonia was erroneously placed among the non-winning candidates.

Cebu City north district Election Officer Marchel Sarno said the Comelec en banc has ordered the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) of Barangay Bacayan to immediately convene and proclaim Borgonia as one of the duly elected councilors of Bacayan.

The documents showed that Borgonia, manager of Bacayan Multi-purpose Cooperative, even landed in the sixth slot in the Barangay Council contrary to the first entry made by the teachers who composed the BEI that Borgonia was elected to the ninth place.

Borgonia’s proclamation as one of the winning candidates in Bacayan’s Barangay Council will affect Mildred Branzuela who was declared as the winner for the seventh slot.

The Comelec Second Division, in its ruling dated June 22, 2011, stated “On the basis of the corrected error, the proclamation of Emelia Borgonia as the sixth barangay kagawad of Bacayan was ordered. As a result, the proclamation of Mildred Branzuela was annulled.”

Branzuela filed a motion for reconsideration which was denied by the Comelec en banc on July 17, 2012. Under the law, the resolution of the Comelec en banc will become final and executory unless restrained by the Supreme Court within five days from its issuance.

It was learned that the teachers who served as members of the BEI in a precinct in Barangay Bacayan, Cebu City, admitted that they erred in putting entries in the Election Returns Form for the candidates for barangay councilmen during the recent synchronized Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections.

The teachers claimed that it was an honest mistake on their part that deprived Borgonia of victory because the wrong tally made her rank ninth when she was supposed to make it to the top seven. — (FREEMAN)