Court case bares big contractor behind Makati ‘flying registrants’

It pays to push back abusers, no matter how moneyed. That’s how a Makati City barangay won against an invasion of fake vote registrants.

The voters-for-hire even fought back, appealing at the Regional Trial Court (RTC) their expulsion by a Metropolitan Court judge. All indigents, they were represented  not by the Public Attorney’s Office or pro-bono counsels but by pricey lawyers of Quasha Law.

Fed up with Comelec inaction on the scam, Barangay Carmona residents filed 36 cases – one per precinct – to exclude thousands of bogus voters. In each case, Quasha Law counselled for the defense.

Quasha’s clients are unlike destitute flying voters. They include Philippine Stock Exchange, Standard Chartered Bank and St. Luke’s Medical Center, among many prestigious ones.

‘’Such a law firm is de campanilla and certainly does not come cheap,” Makati RTC Branch-142 judge Rainald Paggao declared in a 14-page ruling on Aug. 24th. “If so, it is not idle thought that there is something more than meets the eye.”

Asked who sent them, one of the Quasha counsels named a certain Gerald Chua.

Documents and weblinks identify Chua as president of E. F. Chua Construction Inc., a double-A supplier of DPWH specializing in building construction, civil engineering and mechanical projects. In 2019 the company figured in a violent demolition of urban-poor dwellings in a disputed 17.6-hectare estate in Malipay-3, Molino-4, Bacoor, Cavite. One person died in the clash that militants billed as “landgrab.”

Judge Paggao linked Chua to flying voters, stating that he personally received summons issued to respondents in their posted address, which happens to be Chua’s own home. Coincidence?

The fake registrants could not produce legal ID cards or genuine proofs of residence. Judge Paggao upheld Brgy. Carmona’s complaining residents.

The judge exhorted the Election Registration Board to ‘’add a layer of vigor in the performance of its mandate.’’ He affirmed the Metropolitan Court’s earlier exclusion of the respondents from Comelec’s official voters’ list.

Brgy. Carmona’s fight is far from over. Comelec Makati, through its voter registration centers, had accepted 3,697 flying voters. That’s a whopping 78-percent increase from the barangay’s original roster of 4,718 voters in Election 2022.

The anomaly not only defies Philippine Statistics Authority’s population projections for Brgy. Carmona. It also occurs without any expansion of territorial coverage or mass inbound migration.

The 78-percent advantage can make a barangay or Sangguniang Kabataan candidate win, even if all legitimate voters prefer others on Election Day, Oct. 30.

Due to present Brgy. Carmona head Joselito Salvador’s opposition, 971 fraudulent registrants have been purged, including eight for SK. But more than 2,000 bogus registrants are still in Comelec’s list. On flimsy basis, Comelec-Makati insists they are genuine Brgy. Carmona constituents.

Brgy. Carmona residents initially filed the 36 cases with Metropolitan courts. They won in most, lost in some. Where they lost, they appealed to RTCs, but the excluded fakes did likewise.

If the RTCs uphold all lower court rulings, a little over a thousand more fake voters will be ejected. Slightly less will be retained.

Salvador predicts those thousand or so flying voters to swarm Brgy. Carmona on E-Day, as the courts curiously come up with conflicting decisions on what is essentially the same petition.

But at least, Brgy. Carmona residents purged the voters list of 2,000 flying voters.

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