Comelec declares Ramon Revilla son winning mayor

SAN LEONARDO, Nueva Ecija — Better late than never.

Almost three years after the polls, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) upheld the victory of Sen. Ramon Revilla’s son in a closely contested mayoralty race in this town.

Mayor Ramon Revilla-Bautista Jr. won his legal battle to keep his post against the petition filed by his rival — former board member Froilan Nagaño Sr. — following the issuance of a 12-page resolution by the Comelec’s 2nd Division which affirmed his confirmation.

Bautista ran under the banner of the ruling administration party Lakas-NUCD.

The three-man division, voting 2-1, junked the pre-proclamation protest filed inter alia by Nagaño, who lost by a scant 62 votes.

The subject of Nagaño’s petition was the election returns in certain precincts in barangays Adorable and Magpapalayok, both known as Revilla’s bailiwicks.

Nagaño said that Revilla’s proclamation should be annulled because it was based on the results taken from defective and fraudulent election returns.

Revilla was proclaimed the winner on May 21, 2001, a week after the polls, after garnering 6,862 votes to Nagaño’s 6,800 votes. Nagaño’s sister-in-law, Allens Nagaño — wife of three-term Mayor Sonny Nagaño — finished third.

The decision was written by Commissioner Florentino Tuazon Jr., while Commissioner Mehol Sadain concurred. Presiding Commissioner Ralph Lantion cast the dissenting vote.

In dismissing Nagaño’s petition, the poll body said it could no longer take cognizance of a pre-proclamation controversy after the proclamation of the winning candidates, the proper remedy being an election protest.

"A pre-proclamation controversy arises during the appreciation of election returns and not at the time of the counting and appreciation of votes," the decision said.

The Comelec said it has no jurisdiction over the case since the winning candidates were already proclaimed and have assumed their respective offices. The commissioners noted that on this ground alone, the case deserves outright dismissal.

The poll body explained that the grounds for a pre-proclamation controversy under the Omnibus Election Code does not include the "proper appreciation of ballots."

After the Comelec scrutinized the questioned election returns, it also ruled that they found no cogent reason to exclude them in the absence of clear and convincing evidence that they were tampered with or altered after they were deposited inside the ballot boxes.

The poll body described Nagaño’s objection to the inclusion of election returns in certain precincts as "scattershot allegations" in which the petitioner did not state when, were and how such fraud or irregularities were made.