Comelec allows Puentevella poll protest vs. Leonardia

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines - The Comelec First Division has denied City Mayor Evelio Leonardia's motion to dismiss the electoral protest filed last year by his defeated opponent, former Bacolod Rep. Monico Puentevella.

City Legal Officer Joselito Bayatan, who is one of the Leonardia's counsels, said they will elevate the matter to the higher court.

He cited Comelec Resolution No.8804 stating that allegations of fraud, irregularities or anomalies must be specific, and in contrast, Puentevella's petition was "of general allegations." This set our ground for the dismissal of the case, he said.

Leonardia asked the Comelec to dismiss the poll protest of Puentevella for its being "sham, unmeritorious, and for lack of factual and legal basis."

Puentevella filed at the Comelec an election protest on May 24, 2010 seeking the annulment of the proclamation of Leonardia, citing massive fraud and irregularities in the casting, counting and transmission of votes allegedly committed by the Board of Election Inspectors in connivance with the mayor.

Leonardia got 93,850 votes against Puentevella's 86,437 votes.

Puentevella said the dismissal of the motion filed by Leonardia means that the recounting of ballots will continue. He said he was made to choose the precincts which he is questioning. If the recounting is started, the city cannot make any counter protest until Comelec resolves the case and come up with a decision.

Also in its separate Order dated February 23, 2011 the Comelec 1st Division approved Puentevella's withdrawal of the 121 contested clustered precincts in the instant protest case in his preliminary conference brief dated September 9, 2010.

The Comelec also stated that, due to such withdrawal, the total number of the contested clustered precincts in the instant protest case is now 186.

In his answer submitted to the Comelec, Leonardia said Puentevella is questioning the credibility of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PICOS) machine and in general, the Automated Election System involving the expertise and participation of Smartmatic. He should have impleaded Smartmatic for obviously being an indispensable party, he said.

Leonardia said the Board of Election Inspectors and the Board of Canvassers, as deputies of the Comelec in the conduct of the elections, should also be impleaded for they are, likewise, indispensable parties in the protest.

Bayatan said Puentevella only claimed that in the conduct of the May 2010 elections there was massive fraud and irregularities in all the 307 clustered precincts in Bacolod City. He said Puentevella filed a motion for recount where he moved for the recounting of the votes in the precincts where he lost, ignoring the counting of votes in the precincts where he won.

If such be the case, then he is controverting his original allegation on massive fraud and irregularities that took place in all 307 clustered precincts, Bayatan argued, as he described Puentevella's claims of fraud as "obviously self-serving."