CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – The second division of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is set to hold today the delayed initial hearing on the “appreciation” of gubernatorial votes in this province, after 21 committees finished last Sept. 16 the recount of votes in 4,683 ballot boxes from all over this province.
But Edgardo Cervando of the Comelec’s Electoral Contest and Adjudication Department (ECAD) declined to say who between Gov. Eddie Panlilio and his rival former provincial board member Lilia Pineda got the highest vote, as the reports of the 21 committees still had to be “consolidated”.
The recount was done upon the petition of Pineda, a close ally of the Arroyo administration, after she lost by 1,147 votes to Panlilio, a former parish priest, in the 2007 elections.
“The results of the recount done by the 21 committees varied,” Cervando told Punto, noting that it will be the Comelec’s second division, headed by Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer, which will consolidate the reports.
The Pampanga Parish Pastoral Council on Responsible Voting (PPRCV), which was designated by the Comelec as its information arm on the recount process, said that the hearing today was supposed to have been done at the Comelec office in Intramuros, Manila last Oct. 8, but Commissioners Elias Yusoph and Lucenito Tagle were then unavailable.
“The hearing is intended to be a venue for protestant Lilia Pineda to present evidences and prove her allegations against Gov. Panlilio,” the PPCRV said, as it recalled that Pineda “filed an election protest against Panlilio on May 25, 2007 on allegations of mis-appreciation and misreading of ballots, and fraud and irregularities such as massive cheating, vote-buying and harassment of teachers and pollwatchers of the rival camp”.
The PPCRV noted that the lawyers of both parties earlier agreed to give a one-week extension to the Pineda camp for the “pre-marking of their documentary evidence”.
Cervando said, however, that the markings were already completed the other day.
The PPCRV quoted Ferrer as appealing for the “cooperation of both camps for the speedy resolution of the recount case” and that he has been “getting calls almost daily from Kapampangans who inquire about the status and outcome of the case”.
But Edgardo Cervando of the Comelec’s Electoral Contest and Adjudication Department (ECAD) declined to say who between Gov. Eddie Panlilio and his rival former provincial board member Lilia Pineda got the highest vote, as the reports of the 21 committees still had to be “consolidated”.
The recount was done upon the petition of Pineda, a close ally of the Arroyo administration, after she lost by 1,147 votes to Panlilio, a former parish priest, in the 2007 elections.
“The results of the recount done by the 21 committees varied,” Cervando told Punto, noting that it will be the Comelec’s second division, headed by Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer, which will consolidate the reports.
The Pampanga Parish Pastoral Council on Responsible Voting (PPRCV), which was designated by the Comelec as its information arm on the recount process, said that the hearing today was supposed to have been done at the Comelec office in Intramuros, Manila last Oct. 8, but Commissioners Elias Yusoph and Lucenito Tagle were then unavailable.
“The hearing is intended to be a venue for protestant Lilia Pineda to present evidences and prove her allegations against Gov. Panlilio,” the PPCRV said, as it recalled that Pineda “filed an election protest against Panlilio on May 25, 2007 on allegations of mis-appreciation and misreading of ballots, and fraud and irregularities such as massive cheating, vote-buying and harassment of teachers and pollwatchers of the rival camp”.
The PPCRV noted that the lawyers of both parties earlier agreed to give a one-week extension to the Pineda camp for the “pre-marking of their documentary evidence”.
Cervando said, however, that the markings were already completed the other day.
The PPCRV quoted Ferrer as appealing for the “cooperation of both camps for the speedy resolution of the recount case” and that he has been “getting calls almost daily from Kapampangans who inquire about the status and outcome of the case”.
