Cebu City sends team to observe national canvass

CEBU CITY — The city is sending a four-man team to Congress to observe the ongoing national canvassing for president and vice president and be on hand to clarify, if needed, any questions on electoral documents, Mayor Tomas Osmeña said.

Osmeña said the sending of the team, headed by Commission on Elections’ city officer Simaco Labata, is not meant to be a pro-President Arroyo move although his party, the Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK), had supported her candidacy in the May 10 polls.

Osmeña said the election results here showed that the city folk are "politically mature" and that the team would be in Congress not to defend Mrs. Arroyo but to protect the integrity of the Cebuanos.

"We are sending some of our staff there. If there are some questions, we can easily pull out our certificate of canvass," the mayor said.

"We are not there as BOPK but as representatives of Cebu City," he added as he took potshots at the accusations of Maguindanao Rep. Didagen Dilangalen that the elections here were marred with massive fraud.

Osmeña said it is an insult to say that Mrs. Arroyo won in Cebu City because the Cebuanos cheated to allow her to win.

He said the elections here were generally fair and relatively peaceful, and that the results were clearly the Cebuanos’ decision.

The official and final results in Cebu City showed Mrs. Arroyo garnering 220,060 votes against the 58,591 votes of opposition standard bearer Fernando Poe Jr.

In the entire Cebu province, Mrs. Arroyo got 965,630 votes against Poe’s 125,099.

Along with Rep. Raul del Mar and Cocofed sectoral nominee Emerito Calderon, Osmeña earlier denounced Dilangalen’s allegations, prompting him to send the four-man team to Congress to readily answer charges of fraud. — Freeman News Service