BACOLOD City – Defeated Mayor Evelio Leonardia has filed a protest before the Commission on Elections (Comelec). But Mayor-elect Alfredo Benitez said it is time to buckle down to work.
Leonardia lost his bid for a third and final term and is now seeking a manual recount of the votes in all 450 clustered precincts.
“The people of Bacolod have spoken and it is time to move on,” said Benitez in a statement.
Leonardia asked the Comelec to declare a “failure of elections” and conduct special polls due to alleged massive vote-buying and the presence of fake voters.
Benitez, however, said the complaint is “baseless and frivolous” and “another desperate move of one who refuses to accept the truth.”
Leonardia filed his election protest at the Comelec central office on May 20. It was docketed as Election Protest Case No. 008-2022.
Benitez said the electoral protest is “an exercise of futility and will surely be dismissed.”
“No documented and concrete evidence has been shown to prove any irregularities at the voting precincts,” he stressed.
Leonardia’s spokesperson Chris Sorongon said the incumbent mayor lodged the complaint due to the people’s clamor.
“The people of Bacolod want to know the truth,” Sorongon said.
Benitez, however, asserted that “the conduct of the 2022 elections was generally peaceful, credible and orderly.”
A businessman and former congressman of Negros Occidental’s 3rd District representing the Asenso Bacolod party, Benitez garnered 171,893 votes while Leonardia of Grupo Progreso got 107,447 votes.
Sorongon said Leonardia’s supporters consider the election results “mysterious and unbelievable”.
He noted that during the campaign period, Grupo Progreso mounted the longest caravan, drew a mammoth crowd during their miting de avance, and had a huge turnout of daily campaigns and handshaking sorties and caucuses as well as of survey results both done internally and conducted by independent institutions.
Benitez appeared not bothered by the election protest. In a Facebook post on Tuesday night, the incoming mayor said he was “hitting the ground running,” (PNA/PN)
