Sun.Star: Comelec declares 15 Bogo ERs 'manufactured'

The Commission on Elections found "spurious and manufactured" at least 15 election returns (ERs) from Bogo City in Cebu, a key area for the still unfinished Senate race. Sun.Star Cebu reported Thursday that the Comelec also ordered the canvassers to use other authentic copies instead. "We are convinced that the questioned election returns should be considered spurious and manufactured," the Comelec second division said in an 18-page resolution dated July 3. Commissioners Florentino Tuason Jr, Rene Sarmiento and Nicodemo Ferrer signed the document. The three commissioners also ordered the special board of canvassers to reconvene immediately and continue canvassing. Lawyer Eddie Aba, head of the special board, said they may be able to reconvene Friday. However, he has yet to consult Comelec Commissioner Resurreccion Borra about a pending request to finish the canvassing in Manila. The resolution was silent on this. The Comelec said there were differences in those ERs when compared to the copies obtained by Church-based election watchdog C-Cimpel. Before the canvassing was suspended, congressional candidate Benhur Salimbangon obtained 66,484 votes, while Celestino Martinez III got 65,172 votes, for a margin of 1,312 votes. If the "authentic" copies of the 15 ERs such as those held by C-Cimpel were to be canvassed, then the additional votes would be 1,706 for Martinez and 702 for Salimbangon. "If we add these additional votes from the said 15 election returns that were submitted and found to be authentic, the total net margin in favor of Salimbangon would now only be 308 votes," the Comelec said. However, Martinez's lawyer Inocencio dela Serna said the Comelec's partial official count, excluding the results of the 15 questioned ERs, showed Salimbangon led by only 850 votes. He also said the Martinez camp will ask for a temporary restraining order from the Supreme Court to stop the canvassing. Lawyer Achilles Cañete, also of the Martinez camp, asked how the commissioners concluded that the returns were manufactured. "We have to remember that not all commissioners know the secrets in determining the authenticity of the election returns," he said. When asked to clarify if he really meant that not all election commissioners can tell whether the returns are genuine or not, he emphatically said, "Yes." Meanwhile, Comelec regional director Ray Rene Buac supported a request that the canvassing be held in Manila, first made by provincial election officer Lionel Marco Castillano. "Having personally experienced the tension and volatility of the previous canvass held at the Provincial Capitol and in the Regional Office, the imminent danger to life and limb, not only of the members of the Board of Canvassers, the support staff, and the rest of the Comelec personnel but also of the supporters of the candidates ... the transfer of the canvass will be a wise and sound decision," Buac said in his June 30 letter to Commissioner Borra. Castillano and Senior Superintendent Carmelo Valmoria, Cebu provincial police director, agreed that lives and properties would be at risk if the canvassing of the disputed returns and the proclamation of winners for the fourth district are held in Cebu. Buac said that in Manila, there will be no need for "a considerable number" of police and soldiers, traffic enforcers, and fire trucks to keep chaos from breaking out. Cañete believes that the commission erred in acting on Salimbangon's petition. He said such matters should have been resolved before the House Electoral Tribunal through an election protest. "The examination of the ERs can only be done by them (the tribunal)," he said. Two days after the elections, the canvassing of Bogo's returns was transferred amid tight security from the northern town to the provincial capitol. Within a week, however, tension at the Capitol prompted the transfer to the Comelec regional office at the end of the same boulevard, where the canvassing proceeded until May 23. Admitting "serious doubts" on the authenticity of the 15 ERs, the special board headed by Aba flew the returns to Comelec-Manila. In its ruling, the division upheld the observations Aba's board raised, such as the different texture and color of the page containing the congressional results and the differences in the election inspectors' signatures. The commission also considered at least nine affidavits of election inspectors and poll clerks, who confirmed that the certificate of votes given to Salimbangon’s watchers were "true and genuine, and the entries therein are correct and accurate." The Martinez camp has argued that by canvassing the same ERs entries for the Senate and party-list elections, the BOC "stamped with certainty the genuineness" of the questioned documents. However, the division ruled: "It is evident from the naked eye that the page of the election returns for the position of congressman is clearly different from the other pages of the election returns. This is a manifest and clear indication that the page containing the votes for the congressman position is a substituted and manufactured return." "If one page is glaringly different from the others, then that page is spurious,"said the commission. - GMANews.TV