Labella declared vice mayor

CEBU, Philippines - Councilor Edgardo Labella was proclaimed last night by the Board of Election Canvassers as the new elected vice mayor of Cebu City who will serve as the presiding officer of the Cebu City Council for three years effective July 1.

Labella, the running mate of re-elected Mayor Michael Rama under the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA)-Team Rama, garnered a total of 203,267 votes, 184 votes more than re-electionist Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young’s 203,083 votes.

“I’m very happy,” Labella said when he arrived at the social hall of the City Legislative Building where the canvassing of the election returns was conducted since last Monday evening.

But Young who ran under the Liberal Party-Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) is planning to file appropriate legal remedy against Team Rama claiming the results were “manipulated.”

“Thank you sa tanang BOPK supporters. After three days of  investigation we have come to conclusion that there were many manipulation sa polling places and we are collating proof and witnesses because we will be filing appropriate action soon,” Young said.

Young failed to elaborate what specific manipulations the other camp allegedly committed which caused him and Cebu City South District Rep. Tomas R. Osmeña to lose.

The BEC headed by Election Officer Ferdinand Gujilde had already proclaimed Rama after the latter garnered 217,448 or a lead of 6,376 as against Osmeña’s 211,072.

Of the 592 clustered precincts in Cebu City, the votes in three precincts from Barangay Mambaling, Cambinocot and Luz were not immediately counted last Monday because the compact flash cards of the three Precinct Count Optical Scan machines were defective.

The three new flash cards requested by Gujilde from the Comelec-Manila arrived only yesterday morning that is why the Board of Election Inspectors of the three precincts reconvened only at 12:30 p.m.

The PCOS machines were then reconfigured to accommodate the new flash cards that will serve as the memory of the electronics scanning and counting machines. The filled-up ballots inside the ballot boxes were again scanned by inserting then into the PCOS machines and later transmitted the results to the computer server at the canvassing center.

The scanning of the ballots lasted until 9 p.m. and the Team Rama supporters and friends of Labella cheered when Labella came up as the winner.

Team Rama supporter Bebeth Belarmino said “Happy kaayo mi kay nakadaug na ang among vice mayor og nawala na g’yud ang among nerbyos. Mao g’yud ni among gipangandoy nga modaug g’yud ang among manok sa Team Rama, si Labella.”

But BOPK supporter Josephine Caballar doubted the result.

“Dili ko makatoo nga napilde si Congressman (Tomas) Osmeña unya si Margot (Osmeña’s wife) nakadaug. Kon atong tan-awon og nakadaug si Margot daug ‘sab unta si Tommy, dili g’yud katoohan.”

After Labella was proclaimed by Gujilde with the presence of Rama and several supporters and friends, the vice mayor-elect said he will serve as the presiding officer of the City Council fair regardless of any political affiliations.

While the BEI were still scanning the ballots yesterday afternoon, Labella’s mobile phone could not be reached that prompted his friends and even his teammates to worry that he cannot be proclaimed last night.

“Didto ra tawon ko naghapon sa prayer room nagsigi og ampo nga tabangan ko sa labaw’ng makagagahum,” Labella said.

Labella used to be a director of the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas before he joined politics in 1998. He met an accident that nearly claimed his life when the Princess of the Orient that he boarded heading to Cebu from Manila sank due to bad weather off Mindoro in 1998.

When several barangay captains asked him to run for vice mayor for the reason that his third term as city councilor would end on June 30, he was “touched” by their appeal and was convinced to accept the challenge to be the running mate of Rama.

“Akong ipasalig ka katawhan nga mipili nako pagka bise mayor nga serbisyohan gayud nako sila sa kinasing-kasing sa walay pagpinig og asa sila nga partido nagsuporta sa miaging eleksyon,” said Labella.

Meanwhile, the Board of Canvassers also proclaimed last night Councilor-Elect Hanz Abella of Team Rama and BOPK’s Ritchie Osmeña as the 7th and 8th councilors of the city’s south district with 100,441 votes and 99,253 votes, respectively.

Councilor Noel Eleuterio Wenceslao was also proclaimed as the eighth councilor of the city north district.

Gujilde said that it would be better if no back-up CF cards will be provided in the next polls, saying that they cause the main CF cards to malfunction.

“Ang mga back-up magamit unya in case naa’y election protest. Pero sa pagkakaron, wala mi nakakita sa sense kung ngano pa’ng mag-back up,” he said.

Gujilde added, however, that should any protest or legal issue arise, using back-up CF cards would be unnecessary.

“You use the official ballots for a manual recount, not the cards,” said Gujilde. —Raffy Cabristante,Silliman University intern,Marielle Shayne Palaubsanon,CNU intern /BRP (FREEMAN)