Bautista: I won Quezon City polls fair and square

MANILA, Philippines - Quezon City Mayor-elect Herbert Bautista said yesterday he was given a clear mandate by residents who voted in the May 10 polls and that he is ready to face an electoral protest filed by losing candidate Michael Defensor.

The legal team of Bautista, the incumbent vice mayor, is currently reviewing Defensor’s complaint on factual, procedural and technical grounds, according to Bautista’s chief of staff, Aldrin Cuna.

Cuna said Bautista’s lead over his closest rival – 373,716 votes – is “a clear indication that he is the people’s choice as Quezon City’s chief executive.”

Cuna said they accept that Defensor’s electoral protest “is a legal remedy available to any candidate who has lost an electoral contest.”

“Although government has declared that the 2010 elections was a success in terms of automation and authorities find incredulous the allegations of fraud… the burden of proving fraud in the elections of Quezon City now falls squarely on the shoulders of the defeated candidates,” he added.

In a 19-page petition, Defensor protested the results at all the city’s 1,281 polling precincts. 

“The results in the protested precincts are not reflective of the actual votes cast therein due to frauds, anomalous and… irregularities in the protested precincts. Had the votes cast in these clustered precincts been correctly cast, counted and canvassed, the protestant (Defensor) would have emerged as the duly elected mayor of Quezon City,” the petition said.

Defensor claimed “there is serious discrepancy in the city canvass report” issued by the city board of canvassers. He also alleged that election returns transmitted last May 10 were “manufactured,” based on the “inaccurate date” on the printed election results from the memory cards.

Defensor said the Commission on Elections should invalidate Bautista’s proclamation and “in the alternative, declare a failure of elections and order re-election in accordance with law if manual recount would prove that the extent of the electoral fraud is so massive and extensive.”