BACOLOD City – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc has dismissed the motion for reconsideration (MR) dated September 19, 2022 filed by former Bacolod City mayor Evelio Leonardia on the dismissal of his election protest against Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez.
A copy of the Comelec en banc’s decision dated April 23, 2024, signed and certified by chairman George Erwin Garcia, stated: “The Commission en banc resolved, as it hereby resolves, to dismiss the motion for reconsideration dated Sept. 19, 2022, filed by protestant Evelio R. Leonardia and affirms the order of the Commission’s 2nd Division dated Sept. 7, 2022.”
It stated that “(a)side from the fact that the petition is insufficient in form and content, the protestant failed to adduce evidence and to justify the need to open and revise all ballots of the 450 clustered precincts.”
Atty. Caesar Distrito, spokesperson of Mayor Benitez, said the local chief executive has once again prevailed in the latest decision of the Comelec en banc.
All the legal actions filed by the camp of Leonardia against Mayor Benitez were all either dismissed or denied, and ruled in favor of the latter, including the petition questioning the transfer of registration of the mayor, he said.
“The decision of the Comelec is a clear manifestation that their [Leonardia’s camp] election protests were purely harassment and no legal and factual basis at all,” Distrito added. “It was purely made to save faces in the aftermath of then incumbent Mayor Leonardia’s defeat in the hands of former Congressman Benitez.”
The spokesperson said the denial of the MR will now put to rest any doubts to the victory of Mayor Benitez.
Benitez won against Leonardia in the May 9, 2022 elections with a total of 171,893 votes as against the latter’s 107,447 votes./PN
