Cebu City solon mulls disqualification of rival

CEBU CITY — Rep. Antonio Cuenco said he is considering having his rival disqualified from running again in the May 10 polls.

Cuenco told The Freeman that as soon as he gets back to Manila, he will immediately consult with his lawyer, Sixto Brillantes, if there is a sufficient ground to disqualify Aristotle Batuhan.

Cuenco trounced Batuhan in the 2001 elections, and the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) has upheld his victory.

Cuenco, who represents the city’s south district, said he hopes to base his petition to disqualify Batuhan on the resolution which the HRET promulgated last Jan. 22.

Besides affirming Cuenco’s victory, the HRET noted "serious fraud and irregularities" in the canvassing of votes in the 2001 polls.

In its 40-page resolution penned by Supreme Court Associate Justice Jose Vitug, the HRET said it discovered a "host of evidence that is more than sufficient to establish tampering of ballots and (their) contents" in the 22 polling precincts that were under protest.

The tribunal said bogus ballots bearing the name of Batuhan were stuffed into switched ballot boxes after the election, a scheme adopted in order "to gain more votes" for Batuhan.

"The records show that the protestee had an unaccounted loss of about 668 ballots. And these ballots were nowhere to be found during the physical counting of ballots," it said.

And because it found the ballots tampered with, the tribunal based its decision on the tally boards and election returns being the "prima facie evidence" reflecting the true results of the south district’s congressional polls.

Ironically, it was Batuhan who had claimed massive cheating in protesting Cuenco’s victory, even accusing some teachers on poll duty of complicity in the alleged fraud.

Now that the tables have apparently been turned against Batuhan, Cuenco said fraud, being an election offense and a ground for the disqualification of a candidate under Commission on Elections (Comelec) rules, then he may be compelled to seek the disqualification of Batuhan.

"Definitely, there is fraud here, an election offense which is punishable by imprisonment and is tantamount to disqualification from holding public office," Cuenco said.

"My advice to the Comelec is to have Batuhan disqualified. A cheater does not deserve the opportunity to hold public office," he said.

If he does seek Batuhan’s disqualification, Cuenco said he will make sure that his evidence is complete and meritorious enough to pin down his rival.

But Cuenco said he needs the Comelec to act first on the recommendation of the HRET to investigate the irregularities in the 2001 elections, particularly the alleged involvement of then city treasurer Eustaquio Cesa "being the official custodian of the ballot boxes involved in the elections."

Cesa, however, described as "unfair" his being dragged into the electoral fraud.

Now the acting city assessor, Cesa, "I was not able to hold any of those ballot boxes when (they were) brought to my office because I had my staff to do that. And I closely supervised the delivery and storage of the ballot boxes."

He said it was possible that the switching and alteration of the ballots were done while the boxes were being transported to his office.

Cesa said he is willing to face a Comelec investigation if only to prove his innocence.

Comelec lawyer Marshall Rubia refused to comment, saying the poll body has yet to receive a copy of the HRET resolution.

Batuhan is out of the country and could not be reached for comment. But his campaign manager, Ceresio Mapula, has rejected the HRET resolution.

In the May 2001 elections, Cuenco got 57,250 votes, and Batuhan, 53,953. — Freeman News Service