THE Team Abante Tagbilaran of then city Mayor Dan Neri Lim (DNL), which launched a comeback, but failed in recent elections, strongly questioned the result of the votes count.
The group told media interview that they have been asked by their loyal followers, Where did our votes go?
They cannot believe the outcome of the votes after the count via voting count machines (VCM).
For Leda Saco, former barangay Manga chairperson and candidate for city councilor, observed that after the count in her barangay, the nine of the top ten councilors are all from the line-up of Jane Yap and only one from their camp. And the 11th slot is the 1oth candidate under Yap and the rest are coming from DNL’s line-up. This is questionable, she said.
Saco said she was one of the top ten in all the precincts of the barangay and her co-candidates are at the bottom.
In the city, electorate have to elect 10 regular councilors.
Poblacion I barangay chairperson Arlene Karaan, who also threw her hat in the city councilor derby, found a pattern in vote counting in favor of the Asenso PaMore camp of Mayor-elect Jane Cajes Yap and Mayor Baba Yap, the nephew of DNL.
Why there’s somewhat uniform of votes garnered by Yap’s line up, except that they differ only few number of votes cast.
She said she was surprised that the Team Asenso Pa More has already posted the result while the counting was not finish yet.
And this is the third time that it happened since 2016.
Another “wonder” in the city is that one of the candidates for councilor under the team Asenso Pa more is being dropped. In 2016, Gerry Pabe, one of them, did not make it. Greggy Gatal was accommodated but did not make it 2019. Bompat came in the last election (May 9, 2022) but failed, also. And the tenth councilor that was elected in top ten is reelectionist opposition Jonas Cacho.
This is the amazing pattern, Karaan said.
For his part, DNL said that “nangita ‘mi sa among boto,” banking on what called “built-in” supporters that count some 14,000 plus.
“I am not an ordinary candidate,” citing his past exploits and positions in the city before.
Aside from this, the team Abante was not short of strategies, logistics and very competitive, DNL said.
Team Abante is not more on winning the elections but to protect the votes of the people, especially those who voted the team, Lim said.
Ronnie Orillosa, one of the team Abante city bets said that he accepted the defeat but what he cannot accept is the alleged fraudulent result and irregularities of the counting.
Sharleen C. Lim, wife of DNL, had this to say in her fb post: “At the end of the day, questions asked were: Where did our votes go? What happened to our clamor and plea? What happened to our votes? The answer is Hocus-Picos. It was a battle of Man versus Machines.”
“At the end of the day, it is not the political group who lost the battle but it’s the people who lost their hope, aspirations and dreams. To those who won, you know who you are. I pray that you can sleep soundly every night with a clear conscience and be answerable to the people and to God,” she added.
Team Abante said it has no intention to formally file a complaint but it wanted to let the people know what is going on the city vote count. (rvo)
