Ralota wins ABC presidency

CEBU, Philippines – For his critics, T. Padilla Barangay Captain Michael Ralota's victory in yesterday's election for the new set of Association of Barangay Councils officers was worth the huge expenses he allegedly incurred to get the majority of the captains' support.

But for Ralota, he was voted because the 58 captains who favored him trusted his capability as a leader, although he admitted that Rep. Tomas Osmeña's endorsement significantly contributed to his winning.

Ralota won by 30 votes over Sanchez who only got 18 of the 76 total votes cast yesterday.

Manuel Guanzon of Barangay Capitol Site is now ABC vice president while Lorenzo Basamot of Camputhaw is the auditor.

Guanzon bested Basak-Pardo Captain David Tumulak by only 27 votes as compared to Guanzon's 49 votes. Apas Captain Ramil Ayuman got only 18 votes and lost to Basamot who had 56 votes.

The winning board of directors are Petronilo Fat Jr. of barangay Hipodromo, Pancho Ramirez of Sto. Niño, Antonio Caruzca of Pahina-San Nicolas, Jerome Lim of Sta. Cruz, Nerissa Antolihao of Budlaan, Susan Enriquez of Kinasangan, Elvis Narra of Adlaon, Rey Oybenes of Mabini, Domingo Lopez of Tinago and Vicente Ramos Jr. of Quiot.

The Election was witnessed by officials of the Department of the Interior and Local Government Cebu City and the representative of the Commission on Elections and the media.

Only 77 of the 80 barangays in the City participated in the election. The barangay captains of Lahug, Dayas and Babag were not able to come. Babag captain Rita Sabal informed that she was hospitalized while there was no word from the other two captains.

And of the 77 captains who voted, one opted not to vote for a president.

Ralota was accused by Sanchez of vote buying a few days ahead of the election.

Sanchez's camp became even noisier when Ralota invited the captains to a Christmas party he organized on the eve of the ABC election. Rumors circulated among captains before the election started that Ralota allegedly gave cash gifts during the party.

Even before the board of canvassers counted all the ballots, Sanchez already conceded to Ralota who was leading. Sanchez congratulated Ralota and vowed to support his leadership.

However, he remained firm in his stand that Ralota won through vote buying and other strategic ways to lure captains to vote for him.

Sanchez also believes that it was not Ralota who was his competitor but actually Osmeña who dipped his fingers into a supposedly non-partisan activity.

"Ang akong kaatbang so Congressman man gyud. Ang mga kapitan, naa man gud sila'y utang kabubuton ni Congressman tungod gihatagan sila'g projects, ako wala man koy gihatag nila nga projects. Usahay man gud, makadaog ang kandidato tungod sa endorsement, apilan pa nga naay mga konsehal nag-support niya," Sanchez said.

He said he has no plans of leaving the Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan so he requested the party not to take the situation against him.

"I hope they will not take this against me. Part lang ni sa tarabaho. There's no possibility nga mubiya ko sa BOPK unless ibasura ko nila. The fact nga naay mga namutar nako, it shows that they believe in me," Sanchez said.

Ralota denied all allegations of vote buying and insisted that last Monday's Christmas party was apolitical and just a farewell party for himself as ABC's outgoing vice president.

"Katong allegation about P1,000 kuno na akong gipanghatag, that's not true. Because if ang mga Kapitan nagbayad sa ilang vote, kabarato gud nila. That's not how I see them," Ralota said.

He wants to immediately attend the city council session on Friday where he will sit as an ex-officio member after winning the ABC presidency.

To express his gratitude and to connect with councilors, he will deliver a privilege speech on Friday.

Among his top priorities as the new ABC chief is to improve the mountain roads which he said is the number one problem of the mountain barangays. He also plans to digitize all ABC operations and barangay operations to cope with the modern times.

Ralota is also an architect by profession. He was elected the auditor of the ABC in 2007 and was appointed as vice president in the middle of this year.

He is a graduate of the University of San Carlos and has been a licensed architect since 1979. He also served as a member of the faculty from 1980 to 1997.

Ralota entered barangay politics in 1994 when he was elected as councilman. He first became barangay captain in 2002. (FREEMAN)