By Herbert Vego
CALGARY, Alberta, Canada – Iloilo City Vice-Mayor and Mayor-elect Jed Patrick Mabilog, now on the second and final week of his United States-Canada tour, has refused to be intimidated by the election protest filed against him by his defeated mayoral opponent, former Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, docketed at the Commission on Elections as EPC No. 2010-52.
“It’s an exercise in futility that can only benefit his lawyers,” Mabilog told The Daily Guardian in an overseas call. “I don’t see how the protest could swing the votes in Gonzalez’s favor.”
The final tally as forwarded to the national Comelec canvassing center gave Mabilog 80,654 votes – or 15,145 votes higher than Gonzalez’ 65,509.
As reported in this paper last Thursday, the case filed by Gonzalez’s lawyer Eugenio Original on May 24, 2010 asked the Comelec to annul the proclamation of Mabilog, to conduct a manual recount of votes and to issue a restraining order or preliminary injunction against Mabilog while protest is being deliberated.
“Considering the time element, it would be unlikely for the Comelec to give in,” Mabilog opined, “since it would create a political power vacuum as soon as Mayor Jerry Treñas steps down on June 30. As in the case of other post-proclamation protests, I would have to sit as mayor pending whatever final outcome of Gonzalez’s protest.”
Gonzalez’s camp alleged that of the 344 compact flash cards used in 344 Iloilo City precincts in the automated election, 299 had been physically transported to the canvassing area rather than transmitted electronically; hence, the election returns could have been altered.
“I heard from a number of barangay captains,” the mayor-elect enthused, “that the former DOJ Secretary himself is not keen on pushing through with the protest because he could not produce evidence of fraud.”
As the moneyed Lakas-Kampi administration candidate, Gonzalez enjoyed the support of the majority of the city’s barangay captains and the watchful eyes of more than enough election inspectors and watchers.
Mabilog laughed off Original’s claim that Gonzalez was a victim of cheating on the ground that while a total of 193,153 voters had voted, only 184,942 votes had been counted for all five mayoral candidates -- Mabilog, Gonzalez, Larry Jamora and two others – hence short of 8,301 votes.
In Original’s view, “These missing 8,301 votes could have been shaved by the PCOS machines from the votes of Secretary Gonzalez and credited to Mabilog. If that is the case, Gonzalez should have won by a slim margin of 1,448 votes.”
Mabilog begged to disagree because if so, then it could have been a case of “dagdag-bawas” and therefore could not have caused the alleged discrepancy. In simple mathematics where only 10 votes are at stake, if Mabilog has six votes and Gonzalez has four, shaving all four votes from Gonzalez and adding them to Mabilog would not change the total number of votes – still 10.
On the other hand, if 8,301 votes were merely “reduced” from Gonzalez’s, giving it back would not be enough to overcome Mabilog’s 15,145 lead.
The mayor-elect said that upon his return to Iloilo City within this week, he would open communication lines with the other newly-elected city officials regardless of political affiliations, including Vice-Mayor-elect Jose Espinosa III.
Mabilog’s running mate was not Espinosa but outgoing councilor Julienne Baronda.
Even if Baronda lost, Mabilog takes pride in the fact that of the twelve winning councilors, most or five of them belong to their team PALANGA, namely Lyndon Acap, Joshua Alim, Plaridel Nava, Leone Gerochi and Rodel Fullon Agado.
Four – Perla Zulueta, Jason Gonzales, Lex Tupas and Edward Yee -- come from Espinosa’s team Uswag; two – Jeffrey Ganzon and Ely Estante -- from Gonzalez’s Lakas-Kampi camp; one, David Jamora, from Larry Jamora’s independent group.
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