DINALUPIHAN, Bataan – Congressional candidate Felicito “Tong” Payumo on Monday announced that he would not yet file an electoral protest with the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) but instead wait for the result of election protests filed by mayoral bets from six of 11 towns and one city in Bataan.
“Pwede ako sa HRET kaya lang matagal ang proseso na tumatagal ng tatlong taon. Ang importante sa akin ay ang search for truth kesa maupo,” the former chairman of the Bases Conversion Development Authority said.
Payumo considered the filing of the election protests with the Regional Trial Courts more expeditious, especially if the proclaimed candidates would not block the holding of manual count. He estimated that counting will begin in three months and the results known after a month.
He asked the proclaimed candidates to let the petitions go on if they claimed that they won in a clean and fair election.
Jose “Jojo” Payumo III filed Monday with RTC Branch V in Dinalupihan an election protest, making Tong’s nephew the sixth mayoral candidate to file such petition.
“Ang gusto namin ay magkaroon ng tamang closure ang nakaraang halalan. Kung talagang malinis ang pagkakapanalo ng aming kalaban, hindi nila haharangin ang aming petition dahil kung walang problema, magbibigay rin ito ng tamang mandate sa kanila,” Jojo said.
“Maipapakita rin sa local level kung nagagalaw ba o hindi ang PCOS,” the former Dinalupihan mayor said.
Candidates for mayors Nelson David of Limay and Jose Santos of Orion filed theirs with RTC IV in Balanga City last Thursday while Manny Cortez of Samal, Armando Ramos of Bagac and Marlo Zuniga with RTC III, also in Balanga, last Friday.
They were all with Team Payumo in the May 13 elections.
“The protests cite the same grounds – telltale signs of pre-programmed results, anecdotal accounts of malfunction of PCOS machines, statistical improbability of the outcome. They plead the same prayer – that the ballots be set aside and manual counting be done,” Tong said.
He said that Bataan is now the center stage for automated election observers in the country. “It is the outcome of the election protest with the RTCs of Bataan that will provide the answer to the questions on the invulnerability of PCOS machines to tampering,” Tong said.
If the manual count of the ballots confirms the transmitted results from the machines, then those who shout “hocospicos” should stop and forever hold their peace, he said.
“But if the results do not tally, the Commission on Elections and Smartmatic, along with the politicians who benefitted from the automated cheating have a lot to answer to for they have inflicted an irreparable damage to the electoral system of the country,” the former chairman of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority said.
