NEW RE-CANVASSING ORDERED Comelec still determining real winner in 2004 mayoral race in Isabela town

RAMON, Isabela – With barely less than a month before the midterm elections, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) still has to determine the real winner in this town’s 2004 mayoral race.

In a 15-page en banc order dated April 12, the Comelec created a new municipal board of canvassers composed of Manila-based lawyers that would conduct the re-canvassing of 41 election returns in the 2004 mayoral race at the poll body’s main office in Intramuros, Manila tomorrow.

After the re-canvassing, expected to be completed within the day, the Comelec directed the new board, chaired by Elizabeth Sarmiento, to immediately proclaim the duly elected mayor.

The Comelec en banc issued the order after it affirmed the earlier decision of its first division declaring the proclamation of Mayor Wilfredo Tabag "illegal" and dismissing his motion to prevent the re-canvassing of the contested election returns.

The poll body ruled that "technicalities" raised by Tabag in opposing the re-canvassing, as petitioned by his rival, Raymond Espidol, "should not frustrate the determination of the popular will."

Espidol was ousted as Ramon mayor in July last year after losing in what the Comelec’s first division described as "fraud-marred" recount conducted here by the former municipal board of canvassers led by lawyer Jerbee Cortez, election officer of Santiago City.

In its resolution last January, the Comelec’s first division declared Tabag’s proclamation null and void, saying the votes credited to him were obtained through "fraudulent" means.

It considered Tabag’s proclamation by the former canvassing board as illegal due to "totally spurious, grossly substituted and clearly manufactured" election returns.

The poll body ordered the re-canvassing after the first division discovered spurious election returns favoring Tabag, subverting what it said were the genuine and credible results of the 2004 mayoral election.

The election returns re-canvassed by the former municipal board of canvassers, which became the basis for Tabag’s proclamation, did not match the original copies of the same documents that showed Espidol the legitimate winner in the 2004 election, the Comelec said.

After the May 10, 2004 election, Espidol was proclaimed the duly elected mayor with 8,647 votes against Tabag’s 6,635, or a margin of 2,012.

However, the following year, the former municipal board of canvassers led by Cortez conducted a recount, this time showing Tabag winning with 8,228 votes against Espidol’s 6,916 votes.

The Comelec’s first division described Tabag’s proclamation as a "brazen act of tampering with the results of the election (and) reveals the existence of an organized syndicate, which no doubt required the participation of Comelec personnel."