ILOILO City – The Regional Trial Court – Branch 66 in Barotac Viejo, Iloilo dismissed the election protest filed against Mayor Raul Banias of Concepcion, Iloilo.
It was insufficient in form and substance, according to the court.
The election protest was filed by defeated mayoral candidate Rainier Balida a few days after the May 13 midterm polls.
Banias asked the court to dismiss the protest. He argued that Balida failed to detail the acts or omissions complained of showing electoral fraud or irregularities in the protested precincts as required by the 2010 Rules of Procedures in Election Contests Involving Elected Municipal Officials.
“The failure of the protestant to specify the precincts where these alleged anomalies, fraud and irregularities happened makes these allegations general and sweeping, which do not comply with the requirements of the Rules,” declared RTC Branch 66 in a decision dated June 28, 2019 and penned by Assisting Judge Oscar Leo S. Billena.
The fact that Balida included all precincts in Concepcion in his complaint reinforced the conclusion that the protest was flimsy, the court added.
“Protestant resorted to carpet bombing, so to speak,” stressed the court.
It further cited a Commission on Elections en banc ruling that “a protest attacking all the precincts is reminiscent of a petition for failure of elections and not an election protest.”
Also citing the case Cabrera vs Comelec, the ruling further explained that the Supreme Court crafted Administrative Order No. 07-4-15 (Election Contests Before the Courts Involving Elective Municipal and Barangay Officials) precisely to curb the practice of prolonging election protests brought before courts, a sizable number of which, in the part, were finally resolved only when the term of office was about to expire, or worse, had already expired.
In his election protest, Balida, who ran under the Nacionalista Party, claimed 1,517 votes for mayor could not be accounted.
He sought a manual recount of the votes in all the 43 clustered precincts in Concepcion.
Balida pointed out that of the town’s 26,783 registered voters, the voter turnout was 21,651. However, the combined votes for mayor were just 20,134.
Balida also cited the malfunction of several vote-counting machines.
Three ran for mayor in Concepcion – Balida, Banias (Partido Demokratiko Pilipino – Lakas ng Bayan) and Butch Ariola (independent).
Banias got 10,106 votes; Balida, 9,862; and Ariola, 166./PN
