Comelec to be transparent, neutral in Pampanga vote recount - official

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) gave assurance yesterday that it would be transparent and neutral in revising the ballots from Pampanga in connection with the electoral protest filed against Gov. Ed Panlilio by former provincial board member Lilia Pineda.

“We are mandated to apply all election laws and we are doing that. We are not pro or against the administration or the opposition. We are always in the middle,” said Comelec Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer, who heads the poll body’s Second Division handling the electoral protest.

The Comelec began yesterday the recount of ballots contained in some 4,800 ballot boxes from Pampanga’s 20 towns and one city (San Fernando). 

Ferrer said 21 revision committees were created for the recount. As a policy, Panlilio and Pineda must each assign a representative in the committees.

Ferrer said the revision “is open to everyone,” adding, “We want this to be transparent so supporters can come here and witness the revision.”

The Comelec hopes to finish the revision in one and a half months.

The poll body is mulling the installation of a closed-circuit camera to ensure the transparency of the revision and allay fears that the results would be manipulated.   

“If we have the budget, I want a camera to be installed there. I’m having it checked if we can do it,” Ferrer said.

Pineda needs at least 2,985 votes over Panlilio in the recount for her to be declared the winner in the 2007 race, without the ballots burned in Mabalacat town.

This is because the ballot boxes containing the Mabalacat votes were not among those transported to the Comelec central office in Manila for the recount.

Comelec provincial officer Temmie Lambino said there is still a pending arson case involving the burning of ballots at the Mabalacat town hall in August 2007.

The fire destroyed 154 of 399 ballot boxes containing election materials being contested by Pineda and her ally, Mabalacat mayoral bet Anthony Dee. Some 41 percent of the ballots were destroyed.

Even before the arson, Comelec records showed re-electionist former governor Mark Lapid led in Mabalacat with 21,419 votes. Panlilio, meanwhile, got 16,476 votes, and Pineda, 13,491, or a difference of 2,985.

This means that without the Mabalacat votes, Pineda could still be declared winner if the recounted votes from the other Pampanga towns would show her with a margin of at least 2,985 votes.

Lambino said votes cast in yet another town, Magalang, were earlier brought to the Comelec in Manila in connection with a pending electoral protest between two mayoral contenders there. 

Panlilio topped in Magalang with 11,097 votes, while Pineda had 9,428, and Lapid, 7,795.

A total of 779,100 out of 1,128,411 registered voters in Pampanga took part in the 2007 polls. Panlilio, a priest who was suspended from his ministry after he opted to run for governor, garnered 219,706 votes, with a margin of 1,147 over Pineda’s 218,559.

In his motion for reconsideration on the recount, Panlilio told the Comelec that he is too poor to comply with its order to field 43 revisors for the 21 revision committees doing the recount. Each revisor has to be paid P1,000 per day.