Quiambao: Fraud claims are ‘fabrications’

By Yolanda Sotelo

BAYAMBANG- Mayor-elect Cesar Quiambao brushed off as fabrications the allegations of his rival that he manipulated the election results by distributing chips that was susbstituted for the chips during the transmission of the votes.

Bayambang Mayor-elect Cesar Quiambao

 

 Quaimbao was accused of the electoral fraud by inserting the chips inside donuts which were given to the election canvassers in the different precints of the 400-year old agricultural town.

But Quaimbao, a well-known businessman, said, “if I can do that, Senator Bongbong Marcos would have been vice president, or the other candidates that I wanted to win, would have won.”

Quiambao won by more than 12,000 votes over Zenaida Camacho, wife of incumbent Mayor Ricardo Camacho who ran but lost as vice mayor to Quaimbao’s teammate Nato Sababangan.

It was the Camachos who filed the case against him in the Regional Trial Court in San Carlos City.

The Camachos claimed that Quiambaos altered the result of the election using a “chip” which was placed inside the vote counting machine. The “chip” was inserted in the reader of the vote counting machine.

Quaimbao’s supporter, who asked not to be named, however said it was actually the Camachos who brought the boxes of donuts inside the voting precints.

In a radio interview, Ricardo said he filed for a protest based on irregularities as reported by his watchers, “to erase once and for all any doubts about the results.”

“For us, the election is over, but we want to erase all doubts about the results as statistics showed that there were three missing precints. So we asked the court to reopen and recount the votes,” he said.

Quiambao said however, that the case was just a “nuisance case which should have been brought to the Commission on Elections, not the court. But we trust the judiciary system and we hope that there will be just and fair evaluation of the case,” he said.

The Camachos also wanted to stop the oath taking of Quiambao to block his sitting as mayor, although he said he did not know who will be appointed as mayor if the court stops the oathtaking.

Quiambao, a well-known businessman, supported the candidacy of Mark Cojuangco for governor and Mark Roy Macanlalay for vice governor who both won in the town but lost to Amado Espino III and Ferdie Calimlim.

Aside from manipulation of results, Camacho  also  accussed Quiambao of harassment, intimidation, vote buying and other violations of election laws.

But Quiambao countered that it was his opponents who actually harassed his supporters and went on a massive vote buying during the last three days of campaign.

“They are angry at the kapitans because they gave much money but it turned out that they lost,”he said, referring to those backing the candidacy of the Camachos.

Quaimbao also said he would file perjury cases against the kapitans who are asked to sign an affidavit against him, “if it turned out that the affidavit contains false information.”

He gave monitoring reports to reporters which showed the violations of the kapitans during the election, and which he would use in the case he would file against the kapitans.

Of the 77 village heads of the town, 68 supported the Camachos.

He said he had five teams of election lawyers to ensure that he would not be cheated during the election, and that his team conducted a manual counting of votes.

“If I could change the results through the machines, I would not have hired lawyers nor did a manual count,” he said.

EDITORIAL : Mga pamana ni Kimi sa ika-5 distrito

Tapos na ang halalan noong Mayo 9. Tapos na dapat ang mga iringan ng mga pulitiko. Tapos na rin dapat ang pagbatikos at pagtagpi-tagpi ng mga kasinungalingan kontra sa mga tunay na nagbibigay ng serbisyo sa mga Pangasinenses.

Sa nakaraang kampanya ng halalan, isa sa mga sentro ng batikos ay si Rep. Kimi S. Cojuangco sa dahilang nakalaban niya sa pagkakongresista si Gobernador Amado T. Espino Jr. Kaliwa’t kanan ang paninira sa kanya ng mga bayarang mamamahayag ni Espino na itong si Kimi ay wala raw nagawa sa Distrito. Mga batikos na walang katotohanan at katuturan.

 Sa anim na taon na panunungkulan ni Rep. Kimi sa ika-limang distrito na nagsimula noong Hunyo 30, 2010, hindi siya nagpabaya sa kanyang tungkulin. Ibinigay niya ang kanyang makakaya upang mapaunlad ang distrito bagamat ang “priority development assistance fund” o PDAF ay tinanggal ng Korte Suprema noong 2014 dahil hindi naaayon sa Saligang Batas.

Sa pagkawala ng PDAF, nakipag-ugnayan si Kimi sa mga ahensya ng pamahalaang nasyonal upang mapondohan ang kanyang mga proyekto sa distrito na binubuo ng walong bayan at isang siyudad – Sison, Pozorrubio, Laoac, Binalonan, Urdaneta City, Villasis, Sto. Tomas, Alcala at Bautista.

MAGANES: Post election blues

 

The automated election using the voters’ counting machine (VCM) did not in a way ended speculations that there were fraudulent manipulations on the results of the election.

 While the president and vice president are yet to be proclaimed by the Senate and Commission on Election (Comelec) sitting as National Board of Canvassers (NBC), there is now a move by the camp of vice presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to file a complaint against the Comelec owing to the inconsistencies of votes in the count being undertaken by the Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PCRV) in its “operation quick count”. Vice presidential candidate Leni Robredo of the Liberal Party is said to be leading in the count but Marcos’ camp couldn’t take the result, so it is busy accumulating pieces of evidence to prove that there were indeed manipulations of the election results.

I surmised that the camp of Marcos is doing it prematurely. The “operation quick count” is not the official source of data on who win the presidency and vice presidency. It is only the canvassing of the NBC count that is official,  during which representatives from the camps of the presidential and vice presidential candidates are present. The canvassing will still start on May 25, so at this point in time there is no need to lodge electoral protests.

The presidency is a different thing. Presumptive president-elect Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte has enormously leaped his gap among the presidentiables by at least seven million votes, thus his political opponents have conceded early. Senator Grace Poe was the first to concede followed by Liberal Party presidential bet Mar Roxas II and Vice President Jejomar Binay. By conceding early, there’s no reason to question the results of the election. Duterte has yet to wait for the formal proclamation of his victory at the polls, but then he has also to prepare for the smooth transition of power from outgoing President Benigno S. Aquino III.

Whatever the result for the vice presidency, we have to respect the will of the electorates. While the contending camps have the right to question the results, they have to do it through legal actions sans rallies and other forms of protests.

******

Last May 19, Comelec proclaimed the  12 senators and 46 partylists.

 The 12 senators who were proclaimed are Franklin Drilon, Joel Villanueva, Sen. Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, Panfilo Lacson, Richard Gordon, Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri, Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao, Francis Pangilinan, Risa Hontiveros, Sherwin Gatchalian, Sen. Ralph Recto and Leila De Lima. They will serve until noon of June 30, 2022 or for six years.

The 46 partylists are: Ako Bicol(3 seats), Gabriela (2 seats), 1Pacman (2 seats), ACT Teachers (2 seats),  Senior Citizens (2 seats), Kabayan (2 seats), Agri (2 seats),PBA (2 seats), Buhay (2 seats), Abono (2 seats), AMIN (2 seats), COOP-NATCCO (2 seats).

With one seat each are: Akbayan, Bayan Muna, Agap, An Waray,  CIBAC, AAMBIS-OWA, Kalinga, A Teacher, YACAP, DIWA, TUCP, Abang Lingkod, LPGMA, ALONA, 1-Sagip, Butil, Acts-OFW, Anakpawis, Ang Kabuhayan, Angkla, MATA, 1-CARE, ANAC-IP, ABS, Kabataan, BH, AASENSO, SBP, Magdalo, 1-Ang Edukasyon, Manila Teachers, Kusug Tausug, Aangat Tayo and Agbiag!

Filipinos mull to sail to China-grabbed Scarborough Shoal

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

DAGUPAN CITY – The leaders of the National Movement for Food Sovereignty (NMFS) and the Green Peace are mulling  to sail to the disputed Scarborough Reef even without the permission of the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Iza Gonzales of the NMFS said the plan is for a fact finding mission for Filipino fishermen who are banned by the Chinese navy from fishing in the reef.

“Isa po itong hakbang para alamin na mga mangingisda  natin sa Pangasinan ay wala  ng nahuhuli. Pumapalaot po sila pero pagdating sa laot tinataboy sila. Malaki ang problema (This is a step to inquire why fishermen in Pangasinan have no catch anymore. They go to the high sea but the Chinese drive them away. That is a big problem),” Gonzales said.

Gonzales was recently brought here by the Green Peace to drum up the threat from the Chinese and the poor state of Filipino fishermen.

Green Peace is an organization that protects and conserves the environment.

What prompted Gonzales to participate in a fact finding mission was because fishermen in Alaminos City and Infanta in Pangasinan and in Santa Cruz and Masinloc in Zambales are suffering.

The fish-rich shoal is only 240 kilometers from Masinloc and 947 kilometers from the nearest Chinese island Hainan.

She said fishermen in Zambales plan to stage a protest because they have been hurting since 2012.

She said fishermen in Alaminos City are relegated to servicing the tourists in the overcrowded industry there.

“Just like fishermen in Zambales, Alaminos fishermen could no longer catch fish because of the Chinese,” she said.

The Scarborough Shoal standoff between China and the Philippines began on April 8, 2012 over the Philippine Navy apprehension of eight mainland Chinese fishing vessels in the disputed territory.

Before this problem spawned into immeasurable proportions, the Philippines agreed that year to withdraw her Navy ship Pampanga as the Chinese did the same. But the latter breached the agreement thus the presence of her navy and coast guard ships there now.

According to Green Peace, the fishing industry employs an estimated 1.6 million in the country.

Its contribution to the Philippines’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of PhP 12,643 billion at current prices is 1.6 % or Php 197.1 billion. At constant prices, the fishing industry’s contribution to GDP of Php 7,164 billion is 1.8 % or Php 130.5 billion.

Fish farmers force harvest their bangus

DAGUPAN CITY – Aquaculture operators in Anda town are forcedly  harvesting their bangus after heavy rains upturned the seawater and changed water temperature, causing the cultured fish to gasp for air.

Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Ilocos Regional Director Nestor Domenden said the “gataw (gasping for air)” occured in barangays Carot and Siapar in the island town.

“It is actually the fourth day of gataw because of neaptide and cloudy skies, a situation when dissolved oxygen level goes down as the aquatic plants cannot produce oxygen at normal rate. The situation was aggravated when it rained hard on Thursday night and the  water upturned, with the cool water below mixing with the warmer water above, resulting in lesser dissolved oxygen,” he explained.

The BFAR has no report yet on the extent of the forced harvest.

“But this is not a fishkill. The bangus that are harvested are still alive, but they are harvested before the the situation in the production areas worsens and there could be massive fish mortality,” Domenden said.