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Malolos RTC dismisses election protest filed against Bocaue mayor

MANILA, Jan. 10 (PNA) -- A Regional Trial Court of Malolos, Bulacan has dismissed the election protest filed against Bocaue Mayor Eleonor Tugna for insufficiency in form and substance.

The decision dated November 11, 2016 by Regional Trial Court, Brach 81 of Malolos, Bulacan, presided by Judge Hermenegildo Dumlao II, (which was officially released on December 27, 2016 and received by the parties on January 5, 2017), junked the petition.

The election of the local chief executive was decided by a coin toss after she and her rival got equal number of 16,694 votes after the elections on May 9, 2016.

Valerio filed the election protest when he lost in the coin toss alleging that in 34 clustered precincts “frauds and irregularities were committed in the conduct of the election and during the canvassing of the election returns” and that the vote counting machines (VCMs) “in certain precincts did not print the required receipts and therefore did not function correctly.”

When required by the court to answer, Tugna, through her lawyers Romulo Macalintal and Antonio Carlos Bautista asked the court to “summarily dismiss the election protest for being insufficient in form and substance for failure of Valerio to make a detailed specification of the acts or omissions complained of showing the electoral frauds, anomalies, or irregularities in the protested precincts as required by the Supreme Court Rules for election protests involving elective municipal officials.”

It also sustained respondent's argument that the petitioner “failed to give a detailed description of the acts or omissions complained of as required by Section 10(c)(iv), Rule 2 of A. M. No. 10-4-1-SC, otherwise known as the “The 2010 Rules of Procedure for Municipal Election Contests.”

"Valerio did not indicate in his protest the particular acts or omissions which amounted to fraud or irregularities committed in the conduct of the election”, the decision said.

The Court added that Valerio’s “election protest did not make mention of individuals or parties that committed the frauds or irregularities complained of or of the voters who were disenfranchised due to the commission of the frauds or irregularities complained of.”

Valerio can still file an appeal before the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

"If he wants to he can go to Comelec for appeal...decisions of RTCs in municipal officials are appealable only to Comelec," Macalintal added. (PNA)

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