Poll protest in Apas Outgoing councilman claims “dagdag-bawas”
CEBU, Philippines - An outgoing councilman of Barangay Apas who recently lost in his re-election bid has filed an election protest before the Municipal Trial Court in Cities citing alleged “dagdag-bawas†in the last elections.
Maximo Yap, Jr., who is on his second term, claimed that he would have been on the 7th place had it not because of the 10 votes added by the members of the Board of Election Inspectors to councilman-elect Apolinario Urtezuela. Yap said the BEI did not only add 10 votes to Urtezuela it also deducted five votes from him.
“BEI’s in the protested precinct illegally and unlawfully added 10 votes in favor of the protestee while deducting 5 votes against the protestant in the tabulation of the Election Returns, thereby unjustly and illegally altering the over-all results of the total number of votes tabulated and canvassed for a material difference of 15 votes which ultimately altered the results of the elections and caused the defeat of protestant,†the complaint reads.
Based on the official tally, Urtezuela garnered 2,405 votes while Yap has only 2,399 votes which landed him on the 8th slot with only a slim margin of six votes.
On the day of the election, Yap alleged that the Board of Election Tellers (BET) “deliberately made fraudulent†reading, tally counting, appreciation and recording of votes in clustered precincts 0039A and 0040A in polling precinct No. 24 in favor of Urtezuela.
Had there been no irre-gularities in the canvassing of votes, Yap said he would have had 9 votes ahead of Urtezuela.
“Protestant would have clearly won as in fact he did actually win by a plurality margin of 9 votes over the protestee where he should have been proclaimed the rightful winner for the last and 7th slot for the office of the SB or during the Oct. 28, 2013,†the complaint reads.
Yap sought for the total review, recount and revision of all the ballots. He expressed willingness to put up an amount to cover the cost of the revision.
Yap asked the court to direct the Cebu City treasu-rer and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to transport and deliver before the court the ballot boxes, all security keys as well as the computerized voters’ list and book of voters in their custody. (FREEMAN)
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