By Fred C. Fuertes
Provincial Board Member Jose “Dodong†Veloso, a perennial winner in previous electoral exercises, recently lost another battle against reelected Mayor Leoncio “Boy†Evasco, Jr. concededly Maribojoc’s top performer chief executive.
In a one-page decision dated June 8, Regional Trial Court Baudilio Dosdos dismissed Veloso’s election protest for the latter’s failure to put up a cash deposit of P3,000 as mandated by the law.
The milestone decision followed suit the electoral protest lodged by defeated Dauis mayoralty aspirant Victorio Migriño against mayor-elect Jaime Jimenez before the sala of RTC Judge Pablo Magdoza, presiding judge of RTC Branch 48.
The dismissal order read: “In the case before us, there is no showing in the records, that the protestant had made such cash deposit within five (5) days from the filing of the protest as required under rule 7, section 2 of the 2010 rules of procedures in election contests before the courts involving elective municipal officials (A.M. No. 10-4-1, Supreme Court).
It may be recalled that a week after Evasco set a record-breaking win over Veloso, a three-termer mayor and a three-termer of vice mayor, the mayoralty aspirant lodged an election protest before the RTC alleging that he was cheated in the last polls.
One of the grounds of his protest was that the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines when delivered last May 4 to 7, this year, were tested and sealed without his presence or his duly designated watchers. He further complained that the personnel who tested the machines were avid supporters of Evasco.
The failure to notify him of the testing and sealing schedules gave him doubt for a possible manipulation of the PCOS in Evasco’s favor.
To further bolster his claim of irregularities, Veloso said that several supporters of his political rival earlier made declarations on the outcome of the election. The Evasco supporters predicted a dismal loss in his own precinct. And since the predictions all came true, Veloso opined, this means they already knew the outcome of the polls even before voting time and logical explanation to this, the erstwhile political wonder boy said, was that there must be preprogrammed PCOS machines and compact flash cards used.
Veloso further averred that Evasco engaged in pervasive vote-buying in order to induce people to vote for his arch enemy. There was also negative vote buying to prevent people who could have voted for Veloso to cast their ballots.
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