Candy loses case to Klarex

By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent . 

THE House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal  (HRET) has dismissed the election protest filed by ex-councilor Lourdes Darimbang that questioned the 2016 election victory of Rep. Rolando Uy in the city’s 1st District.

A copy of a 22-page decision, furnished this paper by the Carrasco and Geñoso Law Office yesterday, showed the Tribunal dismissing Darimbang’s protest and affirming the proclamation of Uy as the duly elected representative of the city’s 1st District in the 2016 elections for “lack of substantial recovery of votes for Darimbang in the 51 protested clustered precincts.”

Carrasco and Geñoso Law Office that provided counsel to Uy said, “The result of the revision proceedings likewise did not establish any irregularity as to cast doubt on the results of the elections.”

Lawyer Angeline Marie Carrasco said the HRET also stated that the dismissal of the protest was without prejudice to counterclaims for damages of Uy.

Signing the Nov. 15, 2018 HRET ruling were Reps. Abigail Faye Ferriol-Pascual of Kalinga party-list, Jose Carlos Cari of Leyte, Joaquin Chipeco Jr. of Laguna and Abdullah Dimaporo of Lanao del Norte. It was certified by Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta who chairs the Tribunal.

“In the absence of the testimonies of witnesses, protestant’s allegations of fraud, anomalies or irregularities find no legal leg to stand on,” reads part of the ruling.

In 2016, Darimbang alleged that she lost in the congressional race in the 1st District because of election fraud, and that provisions of the Omnibus Election Code were violated. She brought her case to the HRET immediately after the local election board of canvassers proclaimed Uy as reelected congressman, and asked that the results and the proclamation be voided.

Darimbang had also sought a manual recount of the ballots, pointing out that she found it difficult to believe that 12,816 voters did not vote for a congressional candidate in the 1st District. She alleged that the SD cards of the vote counters were configured to generate “managed results.”

The election results showed Uy won with 57,094 votes vis-à-vis Darimbang’s 51,208 votes.

Carrasco said the HRET did not agree with Darimbang because she “failed to substantiate her claims.”

The Tribunal stated that Darimbang failed to present evidence or at least identify witnesses that “illegal votes” were cast in favor of the congressman.

The HRET also stated that Darimbang failed to prove that various anomalies were committed by Commission on Elections officials in favor of Uy.

It stated that “nowhere has protestee’s participation, role or complicity in these alleged irregular and anomalous activities been shown, directly or indirectly” by Darimbang.

The revision proceedings were conducted this February to manually recount the ballots from 51 pilot clustered precincts representing 25 percent of the 204 protested clustered precincts. Carrasco said the results of the revision showed that Darimbang gained 114 votes, but Uy also garnered an additional 117 votes.

Carrasco said that while the HRET noted that Darimbang’s evidence was replete with documents obtained from official records, these “miserably failed to dispute nor overturn the results of the revision proceedings.”

The HRET pointed out that Darimbang “has not shown that she was able to gain substantial votes nor was there any substantial decrease in protestee’s votes based on the results of the revision of the fifty-one (51) pilot protested clustered precincts.”

She said that based on the results of the postevision determination, the HRET’s findings in the 51 protested clustered precincts show that “the officially proclaimed results in the 1st District of Cagayan de Oro City was not substantially affected and there is no compelling ground to proceed with the remaining 75% protested precincts.”

Darimbang has yet to comment on the HRET ruling but her husband Mandangan said, “No hurt feelings.”

Mr. Darimbang added: “We are not surprised with that decision.”

In fact, he said, the decision was already “immaterial” to them because they had been advised by their lawyer as early as October not to pursue the case against the congressman. He said the HRET decision was expected by them.

Mr. Darimbang, a former regional director of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, is a candidate for councilor under the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas that had his wife as a candidate for mayor for next year’s elections. Ms. Darimbang subsequently decided to withdraw her certificate of candidacy.