Diego Rivera,
protestants NP-LP-PDSP party/Kampi representative, reported patent
discoveries of revisors that six precincts in Calbayog City,
particularly in barangays Payahan, Obrero, Nijaga, San Policarpo, and
Pilar, had contained empty ballots, and almost 80 percent multiple
ballots written by one hand while the other ballots were found to have
been prepared by only two persons.
The results of the May
14 polls wherein all the electoral posts in the municipalities, city
and congressional district in the First District of Samar were won by
the Liberal party/Lakas-CMD candidates, prompted the filing of an
electoral protest by the candidates belonging to the
Nacionalista-Liberal-PDSP party/Kampi whose mayoralty candidate was
Rodolfo T. Tuazon.
The incredible
election results are manufactured, padded, fraudulent, altered,
distorted and illegal, which are not reflective of the true results of
voting and counting, protestant Tuazon and his counsels said.
Tuazon aptly described
the massive fraud and irregularities that beset the recent political
exercise in Calbayog City as an insidious rape of democracy. A free,
orderly, honest, peaceful, and credible election is indispensable in a
democratic society. Without it, democracy would not flourish and would
be a sham. Election offenses are evils which prostitute the election
process. They destroy the sanctity of the votes and abet the entry of
dishonest candidates into the corridors of power where they may do
more harm. As the Bible says, one who is dishonest in very small
matters is dishonest in great ones. One who commits dishonesty in his
entry into elective office through the prostitution of the electoral
process cannot be reasonably expected to respect and adhere to the
constitutional precept that a public office is a public trust, and
that all government officials and employees must at all times be
accountable to the people and exercise their duties with utmost
responsibility, integrity, loyalty, and efficiency, he quoted an
excerpt from Comelec vs. Tagle case.
Under the Omnibus
Election Code, any person found guilty of any election offense shall
be punished with imprisonment from one to six years without probation
and suffer disqualification to hold public office and deprivation of
the right to vote.
In an election
contest, it is the primary duty of the court to ascertain the will of
the electorate or who is the real candidate elected by the people
since this involved public interest and should be resolved with utmost
dispatch, and regard to due process.
The law and
jurisprudence have consistently ruled that when there is an allegation
in an election protest that would require the perusal, examination or
counting of ballots, the most expeditious and the best means to
determine the truth or falsity is to open the ballot box and examine
its contents.
