In Baguio: Opposition Votes Show People’s Voice vs Corporate Interests

The residents of the country’s summer capital city welcomed the proclamation of their elected officials, expecting that their concerns will be considered over corporate interests.

By Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat.com

BAGUIO CITY (Nordis) - The residents of this summer capital city welcomed the proclamation of their elected officials, expecting that their concerns will be considered over corporate interests.

After midnight on Wednesday, Commission Elections (Comelec) City Officer Atty. Maribelle Corpus-Uminga proclaimed the elected officials for the positions of Congressman, Mayor, Vice-Mayor and 12 Councilors. The proclamation was witnessed by the winning candidates’ supporters.

LAKAS-CMD Mauricio Domogan was reelected as congressman as three “never-heard” candidates contested the position. Opposition candidate retired Judge Braulio Yaranon defeated Mayor Bernardo Vergara through a landslide of votes from almost all precincts in the city. Based on the final official canvassed results, Yaranon garnered 48,147 votes against Vergara`s 22,000 votes.

Yaranon’s party mate Peter Rey Bautista defeated vice-mayor Lourdes Tabanda of the LAKAS-CMD with 43,369 votes. Tabanda obtained 31,791 votes.

From the 138,824 total registered voters in the city, about 67.96 percent went to the polls on May 10. 

For the Sangguniang Panlunsod (city council), seven members of the LAKAS-CMD made it to the magic 12; five opposition candidates, including an independent from a well-known clan of Baguio-Benguet, joined the 12-member council.

Those from the opposition with their respective ranks are as follows: former ABC (Association of Barangay Captains) President Leandro Yangot, Jr. (1st), former vice-mayor Daniel Farinas (2nd), re-electionist Galo Weygan (7th), newly-elect Perlita Rondez (8th) all from the KKK-KNP of Yaranon.

Human Rights lawyer Jose Molintas, the younger brother of Benguet Governor Rocky Molintas, made it to the council as the 12th member despite being an independent candidate he gotsupport from all progressive party lists.

Those from the ruling LAKAS with their ranks are as follow: newly elect Rocky Thomas Balisong (3rd), re-electionist Edilberto Tenefrancia (4th), re-electionist Faustino Olowan (5th), re-electionist Elmer Datuin (6th), re-electionist Federico Mandapat (8th), newly elect Erdolfo Balajadia (10th), and re-electionist Antonio Tabora (11th).

Opposition’s crusade

While seven elected members of the Council are from the LAKAS-CMD, analysts claim that some of them, especially the newly elected, will possibly join the opposition’s crusade against the Jadewell parking fee scheme, privatization of the public market, and the establishment of casino in Club John Hay. The KKK campaigned against the two issues during the election period and committed to take the issue if elected.

LAKAS-CMD lands slide projection

The LAKAS-CMD triumvirate of Rep. Domogan, Vergara, and vice-mayor Tabanda predicted earlier that their team would win by landslide. The three, including seven of their candidates, were endorsed by the local Iglesia ni Christo (INC).

Despite the endorsement, however, Vergara and Tabanda were defeated, making it clear that the INC vote is only a myth.

Election fraud?

During the elections, a common problem experienced by the voters is the absence of their names in the voters’ lists. For instance, in precinct 0546 A of Upper QM, Josie Gepila, Eliza Balingit, Rufina Halog, and Rufina Catalan failed to locate their names. The Board of Election Inspector (BEI) advised them to look for their names in the other precincts but to no avail. The same was reported in almost all barangays monitored by the Election Watch Media Center (EWMC). 

In their monitoring, EWMC teams saw policemen inside some polling places. The policemen had been entering the polling precincts during the canvassing of votes, contrary to Comelec rules.

In Irisan where voters number to a more than 8,000 in 28 precincts, policemen from station 89 insisted that they would transport the canvassed election returns to the Baguio Convention Center to be accompanied by the BEIs. The order was allegedly issued by Capt. Manuel Balaleng, station commander of Irisan.

The EWMC and other watchers of different political parties however foiled the Philippine National Police (PNP) moves. Earlier police were able to surreptitiously transport one ballot box to the convention center. They transported another four after an assertion by the media, watchers, and party lists representatives to accompany them. The other 23 boxes were transported by volunteers after the counting was finished at 5 a.m. on May 11.

Meanwhile, the city prosecutor brokered a talk between the opposition led by Yaranon and the administration led by Domogan and Vergara to respect the results of the election. In the meeting, Vergara  conceded defeat to Yaranon.

Supporters of the opposition however quoted the prosecutor telling the opposition to leave the legality of the Jadewell parking fee collection in the city. But in a news conference Yaranon said he would stop the Jadewell collection as part of his agenda for his first 100 days in office.

La Trinidad town also saw polling and canvassing irregularities. Many voters who were unable to find their names in their assigned precincts the first time went home in frustration. It turned out later that their names were assigned in other precincts. In the polling area at the Benguet State University, no notices were posted to redirect these voters to other precincts in case their names were not included in the voters list in their own precincts. 

Canvassing pains

During the canvassing of votes in La Trinidad, the constant problem daunting the canvassers and pollwatchers were the blank entries for “number of registered voters” and “number of registered voters who actually voted.” The four-day canvassing in the provincial capital was often delayed until the BEIs reported to complete the tally sheets. This was experienced in barangays Pico, Betag, Balili, Alapang, and Shilan, among others.

Pollwatchers from Migrante, Gabriela and Anak ng Bayan observed “switched votes” in some tally sheets. For instance, six votes meant for Bayan Muna were instead listed to the partylist after it, while zero was registered instead under Bayan Muna. In Beckel’s precinct 38B, zero votes were registered for Anakpawis when in fact there are three votes tallied.  

In some instances, members of the canvassing team even managed to attend to other matters while canvassing was on going - a window for card game Solitaire would pop up now and then in one tabulator’s laptop; one found time to flip through the pages of an apparel brochure, while the men excused themselves every now and then somewhere in the municipal hall to get a “shot” or two in apparent drinking session downstairs. Arthur L. Allad-iw and AT Bengwayan for NORDIS / Posted by Bulatlat.com

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