LEGAZPI CITY – Some 9,000 supporters of Legazpi City Mayor Noel E. Rosal, disregarding the scorching sun, marched the 3 km stretch from Rizal Park to Peñaranda Park to denounce the Commissioners of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for declaring Michael Imperial winner in the May 10, 2004 elections without considering the true will of the electorate.

        Before proceeding with the “March for Truth and Justice,” the rallyists heard Holy Mass at the St. Raphael Church. Some of them were wearing T-shirts with the slogan, “We love Mayor Rosal, our only mayor.”

        One of the placards carried by the marchers reads: “Pinili ng mga Legazpeño si Mayor Rosal, bakit si Imperial ang gusto ng Comelec?”

        The participants carried five black coffins of Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. and Commissioners Romeo Brawner, Resurreccion Borra, Florentino Tuason Jr. and Menol Sadain (now retired).

        It was Commissioner Sadain of the Comelec 2nd Division who had declared Michael Imperial, nephew of Congressman Carlos Imperial of the second district of Albay, winner in the mayoral protest with a margin of 2,143 votes but Commissioner Tuason wrote a separate opinion saying that Imperial’s margin was only 65 votes.

        Last May 30, Chairman Abalos and Commissioners Borra, Tuason and Brawner voted to affirm the second division’s resolution with a modification on the number of votes obtained by the contending parties.

        The poll body ruled that Imperial won the elections with a margin of 2,168 votes by getting 33,861 votes against Rosal’s 31,673 votes.

        But Rosal and his supporters cried foul because in the May 10, 2004 elections, he garnered 44,792 votes against Imperial’s 33,747 votes or a margin of 11,045 votes. With these official Comelec results, Rosal was proclaimed winner by the city board of canvassers headed by Atty. Roseller B. Abad, acting city election officer.

        The recent Comelec ruling stemmed from a pre-proclamation protest which Imperial filed against Rosal contesting the results in 520 precincts citing miscounting, misreading and/or misappreciation, substitute voting, disenfranchisement of voters, substitution and padding of votes and other irregularities.

        Because of these allegations of Imperial, the Comelec en banc nullified 14,000 votes of Rosal. But Imperial’s runningmate and 8 of his candidates who lost in the last polls did not join him in filing the protest.

        Addressing his followers, Rosal accused some employees of the City Treasurer’s Office who are still loyal to the Imperials of allegedly tampering with the results of the elections and forging the teachers’ signatures, while the ballot boxes were in their office.

        Fe Dolot, president of the Legazpi City Public School Teachers and Employees Association (LECIPSTEA), denounced the Comelec and the Imperial camp for tarnishing the good name and integrity of the teachers who had served as members of the board of election inspectors (BEIs) with lies about cheating.

        She took strong exception to the allegation of Mike Imperial that he lost in the counting of votes because the teachers cheated him and supported Rosal.

        “We can never accept that even if we will be struck by lightning today,” Dolot said.

        She revealed that the VECIPSTEA board had passed a resolution strongly denying the unfounded accusations of cheating by the losing candidate. She said further that the local media (print and broadcast) did not report of any electoral fraud committed by the teachers.

        “How could there be cheating during the polls when Imperial’s watchers were posted in every precinct?” Dolot asked.

        Supporting the statement of Ms. Dolot, Joel Calla read a statement from the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsive Voting and the National Movement for Free Elections (PPCRV-Namfrel) provincial office which strongly denied the allegations of widespread cheating during the May 10, 2004 polls.

        He disclosed that in the PPCRV-Namfrel unofficial count, Rosal garnered 43,417 votes against Imperial’s 32,801 votes.

        Speaking for the local media, Hermogenes (Jun) Alegre of radio station DZRH also belied Imperial’s accusations of poll anomalies as figment of his imagination.

        Mayor Rosal said that he still hopes that the Supreme Court would grant his petition for a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the Comelec decision so that he could present his evidence – the 110 public school teachers who had executed a joint affidavit that there was no cheating in Legazpi City during the May 10, 2004 polls.