Defeated mayoral bet asks court to nullify poll results in Antique town
A defeated mayoral candidate in Antique has asked a local court to nullify the results of elections for mayor for alleged partisan activities and intimidation of around 150 soldiers deployed in their town during the election period.
In a six-page petition filed before the Antique Regional Trial Court Branch 12 on May 22, town councilor Eduardson Petinglay asked the court to set aside the proclamation of reelected Mayor Elizabeth Coloso of San Remigio town in Antique.
In his petition, Petinglay also asked the court to declare a failure of election for the mayoralty post or declare him as winner in the May 14 elections.
Petinglay alleged that Coloso got more votes because the officers and enlisted men of the Alpha Company of the Army's 79th Infantry Battalion campaigned for her and her partymates.
Coloso of the Lakas CMD was proclaimed on May 16 after she got 5,991 votes against 5,490 votes of Petinglay of the Nationalist People's Coalition.
Petinglay alleged that soldiers escorted Coloso in her campaign sorties and "were seen and heard" campaigning for his opponent and against him.
He said in his petition that the soldiers intimidated residents in upland barangays to vote for Coloso and her slate. He named these barangays as Bulanbulan, Panpanan I and II, Walker, Cabonga-an, Bawang, Atabay, General Luna, Aningalan, Osorio I and II, Garicula, Nagbangi I and II, Tubudan and La Union.
He also alleged that soldiers conducted spot checkpoints and "intrusive searches" on vehicles and persons identified with his camp but did not search those identified with Coloso.
Petinglay claimed that on the day of the election, 158 soldiers of the 79IB voted in San Remigio for Coloso and her slate in the five precincts in the poblacion in violation of the Absentee Voting Act.
He alleged that Coloso's camp fetched the soldiers from Culasi and Valderrama towns by passenger jeepney and a Fuso Canter and brought them to San Remigio to vote for her and her candidates.
Lt. Col. Nestor Porlucas, 79IB commander, dismissed Petinglay's allegations as "alibis common to defeated politicians."
"What's his proof? How did he know that we voted for Coloso? Did he see our ballots?" Porlucas said in a telephone interview.
Porlucas said he did not order his troops whom to vote for. He challenged Petinglay to identify the soldiers who allegedly campaigned for Coloso.
Porlucas said his battalion was unable to vote earlier in military camps as provided by the Absentee Voting Act because the approval of the Commission on Elections of their application came in late.
He said 196 soldiers were registered voters in San Remigio because they have been assigned in the area since October last year. But only around 150 were able to vote last May 14.
But Petinglay blamed the soldiers and their "intimidating presence" for his getting 335 votes against Coloso's 436 votes in the five precincts.
He also alleged that in 10 barangays that were supposedly his bailiwick, Coloso and her vice mayoral candidate "herded voters in one area" and instructed them to vote in their favor in exchange of money. This happened in the presence of troops of the 79IB "who acted like they saw nothing," said Petinglay.
If the results of the voting in these barangays were annulled, Petinglay said he would have won by 814 votes.