ILOILO City – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) dismissed the election protest filed by defeated Iloilo gubernatorial candidate and former congressman Dr. Ferjenel Biron against Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr.
Biron claimed there were irregularities in the May 13, 2019 midterm elections and that 99,899 votes were unaccounted. He thus sought a manual recount of votes in 2,184 clustered precincts all over Iloilo province.
But according to the Comelec, “the allegations in the petition and in the appended evidence failed to convince us that an examination of the ballots and other election paraphernalia for purposes of a recount of votes (was) warranted.”
“The Commission (Second Division) hereby deems the instant election protest to be insufficient in form and content,” read part of the Comelec decision dated Jan. 14, 2020 and signed by Presiding Commissioner Luie Tito F. Guia, and commissioners Socorro B. Inting and Antonio T. Kho Jr.
Biron filed his election protest at the Comelec central office in Metro Manila on May 27, 2019 a little over a week after conceding defeat to Defensor.
Defensor got 479,081 votes while Biron had 391,403 votes. There were three others who ran for governor.
In his election protest, Biron complained against the “shocking discrepancy” between the total number of registered voters who actually voted as against the total number of votes obtained by the gubernatorial candidates.
In dismissing the election protest, the Commission pointed out that Biron “failed to provide a detailed specification of the acts or omissions complained of, showing the electoral frauds, anomalies or irregularities in the protested precincts, as required by Section 7 (g), Rule 6 of Comelec Resolution No. 8804, as amended.”
The poll body also dismissed as “doubts and conjectures” the 99,899 “unaccounted” votes.
While indeed Biron enumerated the affected municipalities of the “unaccounted” votes, Comelec said allegations of irregularities must be actual, specific, and not mere generalities or conclusions of facts.
“Protestant should have also at least alleged that the votes were erroneously appreciated, and/or the supposed ‘unaccounted’ votes should be credited to him, which would be sufficient to affect the outcome of the elections,” according to the Comelec.
As to the allegation of irregularities, the Commission also ruled that Biron failed to specifically allege the precincts where the supposed irregularities occurred.
“Said omission runs counter to the requirement of detailed specification,” stressed the poll body.
Furthermore, the Commission stated, “allegations of error in the transmissions of results is belied by the fact that the Statement of Votes by Precinct showed that the number of clustered precincts and the number of clustered precincts transmitted in virtually all of the municipalities comprising Iloilo were the same.”
This, it added, proved that the transmission of election results was successful.
“While there might be malfunctions in the VCM (vote-counting machines) and the transmission of results, Protestant must show that these malfunctions affected the results of the elections,” the Comelec added.
It must be emphasized, according to the Comelec, that it “aims not to prove or disprove the allegations of the protest through the appended evidence. It is through these proofs that that the Commission determines whether the allegations herein are specific enough to warrant the opening of ballots. They are then the tools of the Commission whether the allegations call for the recount of votes.”
In Biron’s complaint, it added, the allegations and evidences “failed to convince us that an examination of the ballots and other election paraphernalia for purposes of a recount of votes is warranted.”
In an interview in May last year, Biron cited pre-election surveys showing him winning the midterm poll for governor.
He said the election result deviated from the pre-election survey result of Random Access Consultants, Inc. (RACI) a week or two before May 13 which showed him winning by a substantial margin of votes.
“Ang result sang survey a week before sang election did not anticipate sang resulta sang election kon sa diin napirdi kita (by 87,678 votes),” he said over DyFM Bombo Radyo Iloilo. “Consistent ang survey sang RACI two weeks and a week before the election kon sa diin we will win by a substantial margin.”
Also citing the advice of his lawyers and people who are experts in information technology, Biron said he decided to file an election protest “para once and for all ma-settle ang issue kon ano gid ang matuod-tuod nga result sang election. Ang aton mga supporters, even our big campaign leaders – the Garin group, Gorriceta, Tupas, even our leaders in the 3rd District and the entire province – could hardly comprehend sang result because updated sila sang survey.”
Because the influential Garin family was on his side, Biron was expected to perform exceptionally well in the 1st District made up of the municipalities of Oton, Tigbauan, Guimbal, Igbaras, Tubungan, Miag-ao, and San Joaquin. The Garins were the acknowledged political kingpins of the district.
But Biron won in only three towns – Guimbal, San Joaquin and Tubungan.
Defensor had long expressed confidence that Biron’s election protest won’t prosper.
A lot of things could affect surveys, said Defensor, and surveyed voters could always change their minds even on election day.
As to the alleged irregularities in voter’s receipts, Defensor stressed the concerned voters should have complained right there and then at the Board of Election Inspectors.
“Didto pa lang sa presinto ginareklamo mo na daan,” said Defensor.
As far as his victory was concerned, Defensor said, he had long been confident of his winnability, citing the warm reception he got from people on the campaign trail.
“Naghalin ang pagtantyar ko sang akon padaog sa akon paglibot-libot. Ginabasehan ko ang pagbaton sang mga tawo. May nagasiling, ‘Congressman, gahipos lang kami pero sa imo kami maboto.’ Ini sa mga lugar nga kontrolado sang mga local leaders nga indi ta kapartido,” said Defensor./PN
