GAPAN CITY – Unidentified suspects barged into the Office of the Clerk of Court of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) at the Hall of Justice here which serves as depositary rooms for boxes of contested ballots from three southern Nueva Ecija municipalities purportedly Sunday night, authorities found Monday.
Scene of the crime operatives found a ballot box from Jaen town opened but a check on its contents showed nothing was missing, reports said.
Besides ballot boxes from Jaen which are the subject of an election protest filed by losing mayoralty candidate Prospero Antonio Esquivel against re-elected Mayor Santiago Austria who was proclaimed winner by majority votes of over 8,000, also deposited in the office were ballot boxes from the towns of Cabiao and San Antonio.
There was a CCTV camera that covers the building entrance, near the OCC but investigation showed the suspects managed to enter the room by cutting, with the used of bolt cutter, the iron grill on its back window.
Probers recovered a black bonnet in between the piles of ballot boxes.
Senior Supt. Crizaldo Nieves, Nueva Ecija police director, said that combined teams from the SOCO and the local police have conducted a thorough investigation after employees who reported for work found the mess on Monday. “Wala namang nawala maliban sa may bukas na ballot box,” Nieves said.
Security personnel would not allow the media to enter the building.
The RTC building is a few meters away from the police station, inside the city hall compound. Representatives of politicians who are supposed to guard the ballot boxes stay in front of the building throughout the night said they never realized anything wrong happening inside.
Sources suspect the motive behind the act was to create doubt on the integrity of the ballots inside the room which may result to prolonged hearing of the case.
