Sen. Cayetano to look into Galenzoga’s poll complaint

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Senator Alan Peter Cayetano on Monday vowed that he will look into the complaints of election fraud filed by mayoralty candidate Marilou “Malot” Veloso Galenzoga against the city Comelec and her aunt Mayor Carmen Cari.

Cayetano, who was in Cebu City for his oathtaking as re-elected senator before outgoing Cebu 1st district Rep. Eduardo Gullas at the University of the Visayas gym, issued this statement despite his being with the coalition party in which Cari also belongs.

The re-elected senator is a member of the Nationalista Party that coalesced with the Liberal Party in the May 13 elections. Galenzoga, who ran under the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) party, when asked of her reaction to Cayetano’s promise, said she was happy with the senator’s concern that transcends partylines.

Galenzoga attended the oathtaking of Cayetano at the UV and the senator’s luncheon party at the Casino Español de Cebu, along with many elected government officials from Metro Manila, Luzon and Mindanao.

She narrated to Cebu-based tri-media reporters about the allegedly massive electoral fraud committed by the city Comelec, headed then by election officer Susan Collamar, and the terrorism, harassment and intimidation allegedly done by the armed men of Cari.

“The people of Baybay City, especially the poor, are now united to support her cause and in airing their complaints against deception in the recent elections,” Galenzoga told the media here.

Galenzoga said she already filed a petition to declare failure of elections and nullify the proclamation of Cari before the Comelec central office due to massive fraud and illegal conduct of the poll in Baybay City.

Foremost of the accusations that Galenzoga shared to the Cebu media was the composition of the City Board of Canvassers, which she described as illegal and in violation of Comelec Resolution 9648.

Section 4 of Article I of Resolution 9648 stated that “the city board of canvassers shall compose of the city election officer or a lawyer of the COMELEC, as chairman; the city prosecutor, as vice chairman; and the division superintendent of schools, as member.”

The CBOC however consisted of city election supervisor Collamar, as chair, city civil registrar Noel Managbanag and city social work officer Loreta Malabanan, as vice-chair and member, respectively.

This composition allegedly violated Comelec laws because Managbanag was neither a prosecutor nor from the Department of Justice, and Malabanan was not from the Department of Education, as required, said Galenzoga.

Galenzoga further questioned the act of the city Comelec in proclaiming with undue haste Mayor Cari as the winner even if the transmission of about 75 percent of the election results at the time was not yet complete and done electronically.

Rule 3 of Section 1 of Comelec Resolution 8804 provides that “the basis of the canvass shall be the electronically transmitted results,” thus the manual transmission could not make the ERs official, but even then, the city Comelec still proceeded with the canvassing and eventually proclaimed Cari, said Galenzoga. (FREEMAN)