Cari unfazed by voided proclamation

BAYBAY CITY, Philippines — Mayor Carmen Cari said she was unperturbed by the decision of the Comelec First Division annulling her proclamation as the winner of the May 2013 polls.

Cari said it will not change the results of the election anyway. "There will be just a re-canvassing and another proclamation, another ritual, and I will be proclaimed as mayor once more," she said, declaring further that, at present, she is "still the mayor of Baybay City."

The Comelec First Division voided Cari's proclamation after her election opponent, Marilou "Malot" Galenzoga, filed a protest questioning the composition of the City Board of Canvassers (CBOC), claiming it was illegal and thus the proclamation was invalid. 

Cari however said she will be filing a motion for reconsideration against the ruling, but not because she is contesting it. She only wanted the Comelec to be clear on who will shoulder the cost of the re-canvassing. "I guess it should be Galenzoga (the protestant) because she was the one who raised the question," she said. 

Cari insisted she had nothing to do with composing the CBOC because it was the Comelec provincial that constituted it. "It was the provincial Comelec that appointed them (the members)," she said.

In the Comelec ruling, which ordered the re-composition of the CBOC, only the second and third members of the CBOC were deemed illegal and replaced. The board chair, election officer Susan Collamar, was retained.  

The two new members of the CBOC, which is now ordered to re-canvass the election results, will be the clerk of court of the Regional Trial Court in Baybay and a representative of the Department of Education.

Cari added that Galenzoga's other petition to proclaim a failure of elections in the city was earlier dismissed by the Comelec for lack of basis. — (FREEMAN)