Mysterious poll returns seized

A total of 88 election returns were seized by the Malabon City police late last night as the canvassing of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in the city neared the homestretch.

According to Inspector Oliver Lucero, deputy chief of the Station Investigation and Intelligence Branch (SIIB), the election returns were found by the police inside three noodle boxes at 5 M. Aquino St., Niugan, Malabon.

A search warrant was issued by Judge Antonio Fineza of the Caloocan City Regional Trial Court (RTC) for the house allegedly used by Malabon re-electionist vice mayor Mark Allan Yambao (Nationalist People’s Coalition) as campaign headquarters.

Lucero said 77 of the election returns were for the congressional race in Malabon while the rest were election returns for the local race in Navotas.

The election returns from Malabon showed NPC congressional candidate Rissa Aquino-Oreta, daughter of Sen. Tessie Aquino-Oreta, leading in more than a hundred precincts in the city over re-electionist Rep Ricky Sandoval of the People Power Coalition. Oreta and Sandoval are vying for the lone Malabon-Navotas congressional seat.

Meanwhile, Navotas election officer Villamor Igne Thursday proclaimed Tobias Tiangco (NPC) as Navotas mayor; and based on the Comelec’s final count, Sandoval has won over Oreta in the municipality.

Sandoval also has a comfortable lead over Oreta in Malabon. Based on the partial, unofficial result of the Comelec from 293 precincts as of yesterday morning, Sandoval had 25,607 votes as against Oreta’s 22,646.

There are a total of 158,579 voters in Malabon City.

According to Lucero, supporters of Oreta, identified as Demetrio Cruz of Barangay Tugatog and Emilio Bautista of Barangay Catmon, went to the Malabon police to complain.

Cruz and Bautista also reported that they saw some men unloading boxes of alleged election returns from a gray van at 5 M. Aquino St., Niugan, Malabon at around 5 a.m. on May 15.

The seized election returns were immediately turned over to Malabon election officer Armando Mallorca.

Mallorca told The STAR that he was surprised at the discovery of the election returns because as far as the Comelec is concerned, all the election returns from the city’s 1,263 precincts are accounted for. – Jerry Botial