BACOLOD City Legal Officer Joselito Bayatan on Monday called the poll protest of a former congressman against Mayor Evelio R. Leonardia as "clownish".
Bayatan likened former congressman Monico Puentevella's case against the incumbent mayor to a "headless chicken" with no direction. He made the comment after the Commission on Election denied the motion for reconsideration filed by Leonardia's camp and granted the petition of Puentevella to conduct a manual counting of the 186 clustered precincts that he protested last year.Puentevella lost to Leonardia in the May 2010 mayoral race. Bayatan said that this is the latest circus where Puentevella would like to subject the precincts where he lost to a manual counting and those precincts that he won should be left untouched. There were 307 clustered precincts in Bacolod City during the May 2010 elections. Leonardia won in 186 precincts with 93,519 votes while Puentevellla won in the 121 clustered precincts garnering 86,258 votes. Leonardia led by a margin of 7,261 votes. After Puentevella lost the political race, he filed a protest and sought a recounting of the clustered precincts where he lost. He claimed there was massive fraud and irregularities in the conduct of the elections. However, the camp of Leonardia countered that if Puentevella is questioning the integrity of the election result, he should also question the victory of his partymates, namely Councilors El Cid Familiaran, Archie Baribar, Elmer Sy, Catalino Alisbo and Sonya Verdeflor. “If he is claiming that there was massive fraud, is he also implying that those councilors under the MONOPAL who were victorious in the last elections also committed fraud or was their victory a result of a massive fraud?,” Bayatan asked. Leonardia’s camp believed that it was a clean and honest election, as the poll automation seeks to address elimination of fraud. Leonardia said that he will let his lawyers take care of the legality of the protest. He said he will only concentrate in doing his work for the city. The mayor said the protest aim to distract him but he said that he will never allow it to bother him. He said Puentevella has the tendency to file a protest every time he loses in an election. Lawyer Maphilindo Polvora, Leonardia's counsel, said he will appeal the Commission on Elections latest decision soon. Published in the Sun.Star Bacolod newspaper on March 22, 2011.
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