Teachers admit error during poll tallying

CEBU, Philippines – The teachers who served as Board of Election Tellers in a precinct in Barangay Bacayan, Cebu City, admitted yesterday that they erred in putting entries in the Election Return Form for the candidates for barangay councilmen during the recent synchronized Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections.

The incident, which teachers said was an honest mistake on their part, deprived a candidate of victory because the wrong tally made her ranked ninth when she was supposed to make it to the top seven.

Emelia Borgonia, manager of the Bacayan Multi-purpose Cooperative, lost 84 votes when in clustered precinct 92A and 92B, the BET only put 42 votes right across her name in the official ER instead of 126.

The BET mistakenly repeated the same score on two consecutive candidates, then put after the third candidate the supposed score of the second. Eventually the mistake was carried over to the rest of the names.

To illustrate further, the BET wrote the score of 30 to candidate number 6 and repeated the same score to candidate number 7.

The BET then copied the supposed score of candidate number 7 to candidate number 8 and the rest got the score of the candidate immediately before them.

Borgonia's score of 126 in precinct 92A, 92B went to Mildred Vanzuela while Vanzuela's score of 60 in the same precinct went to the candidate after her.

Getting 66 more votes, Vanzuela was able to make it to the seventh spot but Borgonia ranked only ninth.

The real number of votes that Borgonia earned could have placed her in the sixth spot.

Borgonia was informed of the mistake by a watcher who was able to copy the results in all 17 clustered precincts in Barangay Bacayan.

The watcher, according to a resident in Bacayan who refused to be named, was surprised himself that Borgonia did not make it to the first seven.

When Borgonia was able to secure a copy of the ER from the Commission on Election last Saturday, they found the mistake and immediately reported it to the Comelec yesterday along with the BETs who admitted the error made.

Lawyer Marchel Sarno, election officer of Comelec Cebu City north district, told The FREEMAN in a phone interview that the aggrieved party should coordinate with the Barangay Board of Canvassers to file a petition to their central office in Manila to correct the manifest error.

He said that as of now, the erring teachers will not suffer any sanction until the petition is passed and resolved.

Comelec Resolution No. 9030 provides that in case of manifest error in the tabulation or tallying, candidate aggrieved may appeal to the commission.

"Manifest errors discovered after proclamation shall be filed by the board or any aggrieved party with the Commission," the resolution read. - Jessica Ann R. Pareja and Grace Melanie I. Lacamiento, USJR intern/BRP (FREEMAN)