STACKED BOXES reportedly containing 13,000 affidavits of voters claiming that what they shaded in their ballots did not match the results from the automatic counting machines impacted the gravity of the election protest Mylyn Pineda-Cayabyab filed against Mayor Vilma Balle-Caluag.
This, the protestant’s lawyer himself, Atty. Jep Miranda, conveyed upon filing the case at the Comelec Central Office on May 22.
The protest is grounded on: 1) the statistically improbable voting pattern – most notably the unprecedented and highly unlikely outcome in which Pineda-Cayabyab did not even win a single precinct; and 2) consistent vote misattribution across varying voting demographics, strongly suggesting digital scaling or manipulation in favor of the presumptive winners.
A manual recount of all ballots cast in the city’s 239 precincts is therefore prayed for. To determine, beyond any iota of doubt, if indeed the proclaimed winner is the genuine winner.
Reading the news demisted senescent memory of an electoral similarity a short 18 years back, albeit on the provincial level.
Riding on the high horse of morality, suspended priest Among Ed Panlilio was proclaimed by the Comelec as winner of the gubernatorial race in May 2007 by a margin of 1,147 votes over then-board member Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda.
Citing misappreciation of the ballots by the board of election inspectors, the Pineda camp filed an election protest. It was claimed that ballots containing votes cast for “Nanay Baby” were not credited to Pineda although such nickname was registered with the Comelec as her nickname.
In February 2010, the Second Division of the Comelec ordered Panlilio to step down from the Pampanga governorship after a recount found that Pineda garnered 190,729 votes against Panlilio’s 188,718, or a margin of 2,011.
“We find sufficient merits in this election protest case. The division hereby resolves that the protestant Pineda is the duly elected governor of the province of Pampanga after review and examination of the contested ballots in this election protest,” the Second Division’s over 11,000 pages long resolution stated.
Panlilio though managed to hold on to office, availing himself of legal remedies. And helped by no small measure by Pineda’s let-him-finish-the-term nonchalance given the upcoming 2010 elections.
The correctness of the Comelec action proclaiming Pineda as the “real winner” in the 2007 gubernatorial contest was affirmed in the 2010 Panlilio-Pineda rematch: the unseated governor losing to Nanay by a whopping 230,000 votes.
This was reaffirmed further in their 2013 rivalry with Nanay garnering 507,407 votes against Panlilio’s 125,407.
Figurative and literal, Panlilio’s election returns diminished after each contest he entered. In his most recent aspiration for vice governor, he managed to achieve the highest number of votes ever in elections he entered – 387,056. Unfortunately, 364,021 short of even just levelling with Dennis “Delta” Pineda’s avalanching 751,077 votes.
So, how will all these figure now in the protest case at hand?
Of the demystified proverbial lightning striking for the Pineda’s twice? As with Nanay – the misappropriation of ballots corrected, so with Mylyn – the misattribution of votes righted? And all electoral victory for her thereafter?
I don’t know. It’s purely a sense of déjà vu to this old man. A strong one at that.
