Team Galenzoga stages protest rally against Comelec

BAYBAY CITY , Philippines  â€” Citing evidences and testimonies of witnesses on the allegations of election sabotage in Baybay City, supporters of mayoralty bet Marilou “Malot” Galenzoga of UNA staged a protest rally Wednesday afternoon (June 19) in front of MBC-RadyoNatin station in this city.

The protest rally was triggered when the Team Malot was tipped-off by an unknown city resident that Susan Collamar, the city Comelec official during the May 13 elections, will be interviewed on air by the radio station.

The protesters said Collamar caught their ire over the way she allegedly mishandled her duties by “intentionally rigging the election results in favor of Team Cari of Mayor Carmen Cari.”

Galenzoga, for her part, told The Freeman that the gathering of supporters in front of the radio station was not to malign anybody. “We are here to listen to the interview of Collamar and to let her answer the questions with all truthfulness,” over some allegations of illegal acts in the conduct of the elections in the city.

Foremost among the complaints outlined by the Galenzoga camp was the composition of the City Board of Canvassers, which consisted of Collamar herself as chairperson, Noel Managbanag as vice chair and Loreta Malabanan as member.

Malot argued that the composition violated Section 4 of Article I of Comelec Resolution 9648, which provides that, besides the election officer, the other two members must be a city prosecutor and a DepEd official.

“Managbanag was the city’s civil registrar and was neither a prosecutor nor from the Department of Justice, while Malabanan was the city’s social work officer and was never an education official. This made the composition illegal,” said Galenzoga.

Another complaint from Galenzoga was on the allegedly short-cut proclamation of Cari as the winner even if only 25 percent of the election returns (ERs) were electronically transmitted and the rest done manually.

“This violated Comelec rules, which said that the ERs transmitted electronically and digitally signed shall be considered official ERs and shall be used as the basis for the canvassing of votes and the proclamation of a candidate,” contended Galenzoga.

Galenzoga also complained why she was not furnished with a copy of the ERs and the certificate of proclamation of Cari. “Was Collamar hiding something?” she asked.

On the filing of a complaint on “inciting to sedition” against runningmate Al Relevo, Galenzoga said sedition is an act against the state and “Mayor Cari is not the state.” She also wondered on why Cari has been too testy over the opposition when it only complained against the allegedly illegal conduct of the Comelec.

Galenzoga further denied that the document, posted on Facebook, showing her proclamation as election winner by the Comelec en banc was not from her but from the Cari camp allegedly with the intent of making her appear as a scammer. (FREEMAN)