San Juan canvassing moving at snail’s pace

The canvassing of election returns in San Juan may take a snail’s pace due to the numerous protests of the losing candidates for local elective posts.

Henco Quintano, vice-chairman of the Municipal Board of Canvassers, said it might take them seven more days to canvass the election returns because they have to look into the anomalies alleged by the losing bets.

"At the rate things are going on, we may not complete the canvassing soon. It is the right of everyone to file protests and they must prove their allegations. Our job is to judge if their protests are meritorious," he noted.

Administration bets in San Juan have joined forces to ask the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to declare a failure of elections in the town because of alleged massive vote buying and harassment by the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino-Partido ng Masang Pilipino (LDP-PnM).

According to Liberato Mangali, legal counsel of San Juan Rep. Jose Marie Gonzales, they discovered that some 65 percent of the election returns had no inner paper seal, indicating that it had been tampered.

"The seal is used to ensure that the integrity of the elections returns will not be violated. Most of the seals were missing so it means that the origional election returns had been replaced to favor one’s candidacy," he added.

Mangali claimed the original election returns could have been replaced when power outages gripped several areas in San Juan Monday night and while the ballot boxes and election returns were being transported to the San Juan gymnasium.

The canvassers will look into the merits of the complaints based on the evidence that the petitioners would present to them.

The town has 73,688 registered voters.

Based on the final results of the "Quick Count" of the National Movement for Free Election (Namfrel), former presidential son Joseph Victor "JV" Ejercito won by a landslide against his closes rival, former Mayor Adolfo Sto. Domingo. For vice mayor, Leonardo Collos was winning over his closest opponent, Ericson Alcovendaz.