A losing mayoral candidate of the Liberal Party on Friday filed an electoral complaint against newly proclaimed Makati Mayor Abigail Binay for alleged vote buying and fraud, and requested the Commission on Elections for a manual recount of votes in the city’s second district.
In an interview after he filed his petition before the Comelec main office, former Makati mayor Romulo “Kid” Peña said that they attached photos, videos and witnesses’ affidavit to the complaint to prove the “massive cheating” in the district.
“We believe there was fraud. There was massive vote buying. According to the voters there, when the ballots are inserted in the PCOS (now called Vote Counting Machine), my name is not recorded,” he alleged.
Peña requested the Comelec for manual recount, saying it will prove that he won the elections.
He claimed victory in the villages and subdivisions of Makati District 1 and even in District 2 but was surprised when he lost by only 17,805 votes.
In a petition filed before the Comelec Law Department, Peña asked for a suspension of Binay’s proclamation until the manual recount is done.
Binay, for her part, said they were not involved in any irregularity that the incumbent mayor claimed.
“There is no truth about that. In all elections in Makati we won in a clean and honorable way. Mister Peña is the acting mayor of Makati and commands the resources of the City Government,” Binay said.
“I have no machinery and influence to [cheat] and aside from that he (Peña) is a member of the administration party who has control of the entire country. If anyone has the means to buy votes it would be his camp,” she added.
Peña said that he was protesting the counted or canvassed result in 287 precincts of the 559 clustered precincts for alleged irregularities in the counting.
He said he obtained 142,315 votes while Binay supposedly got 160,120 votes.
Supporters of Peña earlier staged a rally infront of city hall, accusing the camp of Binay as the persons behind the electoral fraud.
They claimed that the incumbent mayor did not get a single vote in at least three schools that served as polling precincts in the city’s second district, known to residents as his bailiwick.
Peña allegedly cited that in certain precincts, the results were further manipulated through “force and intimidation” employed by Binay or her supporters as well as the by the city board of election inspectors.
“More appalling are the instances of vote-buying, vote-shaving, and negative vote buying further resulting in robbing the people of Makati of their legitimate right to elect their local government officials,” he said.
Peña also said that the protocols prescribed by the Comelec for the installation of the vote-counting machines and the Consolidation and Canvassing System (CCS) of the City Board of Canvassers of Makati, the initialization procedures for the vote-counting machines and the CCS, the counting of ballots and transmission of results, the closing of the voting and canvassing, and the contingency procedures were not complied with or were altered or deviated from in a manner that indicates tampering or manipulation of the election results.
“Ballots prepared by persons other than the voters themselves and contain votes for the Protestee were illegally fed into and counted by the PCOS machines,” he complained.
Peña also allegedly said that Binay engaged in “pervasive vote buying and negative vote-buying” to induce people who would have voted for Protestant not to cast their votes anymore.
Peña also claimed that numerous voters who were supposed to vote in Clustered Precincts number 296, 347, 391, 394, 415, 501, 521, 530, and 542 were unable to vote as they were misinformed that they could not vote because the VCM for the precinct was not functioning.
“These are the clamor of the people of Makati,” he said in an interview, adding that the P10-million filing fee were donated by “concerned and private citizens and businessmen” who feel that he is the rightful Mayor of Makati.
Binay is the daughter of Presidential losing candidate Vice President Jejomar Binay, a long time mayor of Makati.
Her running mate Monique Lagdameo was also proclaimed winner with 165,894 votes over Karla Mercado, running mate of Pena and daughter of former vice mayor Ernesto Mercado, with 103, 209 votes.
Abigail, who is in her third and final term as a lawmaker, is the fourth in the Binay family who was elected mayor in Makati. First was her father the incumbent Vice President Jejomar Binay followed by her mother Elenita, and the last was her brother Jejomar Erwin.
Her sister Nancy Binay is an incumbent senator.