Court junks NE mayor’s petition vs poll protest

GAPAN CITY — The local regional trial court (RTC) has denied the motion of the woman mayor of Cabiao, Nueva Ecija seeking the dismissal of the electoral protest filed by her rival in the May 2004 polls.

In a two-page decision, Presiding Judge Victoriano Cabanos of RTC Branch 87 denied the omnibus motion to dismiss Election Case No. 02-04 filed by lawyer Petronilo David, counsel of Cabiao Mayor Gloria Crespo-Congco.

The judge scheduled the revision of ballots on Feb. 18 to determine the rightful winner in the Cabiao mayoral election.

Since last September, the mayoral row in Cabiao has been embroiled in controversies. In one instance, eight of 48 ballot boxes, which are the subject of the electoral protest, were reported missing during an inventory; they, however, mysteriously reappeared later.

Congco, who belongs to the Bagong Lakas ng Nueva Ecija (Balane) political party, was proclaimed winner over Lakas-CMD’s Abundia Garcia by a margin of 1,551 votes.

But Garcia, alleging massive fraud and irregularities, filed an electoral protest, seeking to annul the election results, declare a failure of election and hold a special poll.

Last Sept. 1, the court ruled that it lacked jurisdiction to hear Garcia’s petition for the annulment of the poll results, saying only the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has the authority to do so.

However, it gave due course to the revision of ballots from 48 ballot boxes in 21 polling precincts, as demanded by Garcia.

Garcia’s camp claimed that the board of election inspectors (BEI) committed an error in reading and counting in favor of Congco votes bearing the name "Baby" which was not stated in her certificate of candidacy.

The revision has been postponed at least seven times since last November. — Manny Galvez