Court ousts Lemar Alcover; revision of votes show Guardo won by 73 votes
Seven months after the barangay elections, the court declared a new village chief in Cebu City.
Incumbent barangay chairman Lemar Alcover will be replaced by Maria Ailien Guardo, who ran under Team Rama.
A revision of votes and inquiry by the court showed that Guardo won by a margin of 73 votes.
Guardo received 3,052 votes or 21 votes more than what appeared in the Statement of Votes by precinct.
About 251 votes were deducted from Alcover’s total number of votes which Guardo contested before the court.
Plurality of votes
In his ruling, Judge Francis Rainier Navarrete of the Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MTCC) Branch 3 in Cebu City, said the winner shall be the candidate who obtained the “plurality of the valid votes cast.”
“For successfully showing reasonable recovery of votes, judgement is hereby rendered declaring Maria Ailien Guardo the truly elected punong barangay of Sambag I, Cebu City and the proclamation if the protestee (Alcover) for the same office is hereby accordingly annulled,” the judge said.
Alcover may still contest the decision. But in case the ruling becomes final, Navarrete ordered the Clerk of Court to notify the Commission on Elections (Comelec), Department of Interior and Local Government, and the Commission on Audit.
The judge said the ballot boxes which are under the court’s custody have to be returned to the Treasurer’s Office of Cebu City as the depository of the election paraphernalia.
Guardo and Alcover vied for the position of barangay chairman in Sambag I during the Oct. 28, 2013 elections.
Harassment
Sambag I had 24 clustered precincts and a total of 9,318 voters.
Alcover was earlier proclaimed winner with a margin of 199 votes.
But Guardo contested the outcome of the election, saying it was marred by irregularities, “widespread chaos, harassment, threats and intimidation.”
She also said there were “mis-appreciated votes, votes erroneously counted in favor of Alcover, and votes erroneously not appreciated for her.”
Alcover sought for the outright dismissal of the election protest for lack of a detailed specification of the acts or omission complained.
But the court denied his plea and proceeded with the revision, examination, verification, or re-tabulation of the election returns.
Revision refers to manual recounting of the ballots and segregation of ballots for the parties.
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