Namfrel says polls orderly but ex-BI chief cries fraud

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga - The provincial chairman of the National Movement for Free Elections-Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (Namfrel-PPCRV) went on public yesterday to describe the May 10 polls as "one of the most orderly and peaceful" since he has handled the quick count in Pampanga in 1995.

Fr. Deogracias Galang, who also heads the Social Action Center of the Archdiocese of San Fernando, announced that the Namfrel-PPCRV in Pampanga finished its task Thursday night with 98 percent of elections returns tabulated.

"Namfrel’s mandate is not to count all the returns so we wound up with 98 percent," he said.

Despite Galang vouching for the provincial balloting, former immigration commissioner Andrea Domingo, who ran for mayor of this capital town, alleged "massive cheating" here and elsewhere in the third district where her son, Eric Domingo, ran for congressman.

Namfrel-PPCRV figures showed the Domingos losing in their respective bids.

Domingo questioned the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for allegedly allowing teachers assigned to polling precincts to bring home ballot boxes, ballots and election return forms the day before the elections.

She said the election materials were "distributed to teachers as early as Sunday morning, almost 24 hours before the opening of polls."

"Thus, the ballots and election returns used on May 10 have lost their sanctity and integrity," she said.

She said they are documenting "all our findings and these will serve as the basis for the electoral protest we will definitely file."

"We will petition for the opening of all ballot boxes and the scrutiny of each ballot no matter what it takes," she said.

Domingo said she is willing to sell her properties to fund the electoral protests she and her son will file.

But Comelec provincial supervisor Artemio Lambino said the poll body’s operations division had authorized teachers to bring home the election paraphernalia so there would be no delay in the start of the elections at 7 a.m. the following day.

"I had no control on that. That is within the realm of the Comelec central office," he added.

Namfrel-PPCRV figures showed the former immigration chief with 11,921 votes against Rep. Oscar Rodriguez’s 14,195.

Her son, meanwhile, garnered 47,248 votes versus his rival San Fernando Mayor Reynaldo Aquino’s 73,854.

Both Rodriguez and Aquino were the official bets of the Lakas-CMD (Christian-Muslim Democrats).

Galang declined to comment on Domingo’s allegations, saying that the Namfrel-PPCRV merely did its job. — Ding Cervantes, Ric Sapnu