Pesquera denies hand in Annabelle’s defeat

CEBU, Philippines - Former Cebu City Councilor Jocelyn Pesquera denied having contributed in the defeat of talent manager Annabelle Rama to veteran lawmaker and Congressman-elect Raul del Mar in the last May 13 elections.

Pesquera, rumored girlfriend of Mayor Michael Rama, reacted to Annabelle’s statement in the media that she lost because no watcher was assigned to protect her votes and that somebody was mad at her for bringing in Pops Fernandez, who had a duet with the mayor during the campaign.

Although she did not mention the name but Annabelle was obviously referring to Pesquera. 

Pesquera said that the watchers in the north district, where Annabelle is candidate, were under Atty. Ernesto Rama, the party’s lead counsel for the north. Pesquera added that she was handling the south district during the elections.

“Per Comelec rules, UNA was allowed only one watcher. The assigned watchers in every precinct were taught how to protect the votes of all UNA candidates, both local and national. UNA provided the exact number of watchers with ID but only for one watcher per precinct per shift,” Pesquera explained.

Pesquera added that there was also no truth to the allegation that she got jealous of Fernandez for singing with the mayor. Fernandez and the mayor sang the popular song “Bakit Ngayon Ka Lang” in one of their campaign sorties while holding each other’s hands.

 â€œRegarding her allegations about the Pops duet, I did not see it. I was not able to watch any of their shows from the Willie show, her party at the Plaza Independencia, the Miting De Avance. I was very busy lecturing for the watchers in the south district as well as my own pulong-pulong in my barangay,” she said.

Annabelle claimed to have given P3 million campaign funds to the mayor. Because of what had happened, Annabelle wants her cousin to return the amount.

Her Statement of Contribution and Expenses (SOCE) however show that she only spent a little over half million pesos in her campaign.

Annabelle lost to del Mar by a huge margin of votes. Annabelle only got 35,842 votes while Del Mar got 134,180 votes. — /FPL (FREEMAN)