Former Caloocan mayor Recom Echiverri has filed an election protest before the Commission on Elections that detailed the rampant anomalies committed by the camp of his rival before, during and after the May 9 elections that cast doubt on the integrity of the results proclaiming the latter as the winner.
“I was truly appalled by the way incumbent Mayor Oca Malapitan conducted his campaign,” Echiverri said in a statement.
“From the onset, he made use of unfair means and his influence as the sitting mayor to his advantage. But he did not rest there. He blatantly and illegally used his connections with the administration to launch a deplorable and dishonorable bid for the seat. I shall not allow this to simply slide because it was the mandate of the people of Caloocan that was compromised in this election,” Echiverri said.
The election, he said, underscored instances of election-related violence perpetrated by Malapitan —rampant vote buying, glaring irregularities in the ballots, the detailing of DPSTM personnel of city hall as Comelec “deputies,” as well as violations to the protocol set by Comelec to favor Malapitan.
In the complaint, Echiverri brought up the issue of the early delivery of election paraphernalia upon the request of the City Treasurer without the knowledge of the candidates.
There was also a discrepancy on the voters’ names that appeared in the PCVL and the EDCVL and the official list in the Comelec website, Echiverri said.
He also questioned why the ballots in all the precincts made use of a single serial number, even if the ballots reached 800 ballots. There was also a discrepancy in the ballots and the actual number of registered voters.
Echiverri’s protest also called attention to the suspicious numbers of “overvoting” and “undervoting” in some precincts that severely affected the election results. All of these, he said, were perpetrated to the advantage of Malapitan.
“The VCMs were also delivered on the actual day of the elections, leaving no opportunity for it to go on a testing and sealing three days before the election as protocol dictates,” Echiverri lamented.
“I have been in public service for a long time and seriously, I have never encountered this level of abuse of authority and massive cheating just to stay in power. I am appalled. I am disappointed that my opponent chose this way of doing things. My election protest is merely a summary of all the violations that have happened throughout this campaign but if I were to detail every little detail, I would need to write a novel. It is my hope that the Comelec acts on this swiftly, to prove their commitment to safeguard the people’s mandate,” Echiverri said.