Teachers feel dragged into Comelec poll scam

11 July 2006

LEGAZPI CITY—ENCOURAGED by the recommendation of the Ombudsman to impeach Election Commissioner Resurreccion Borra, the president of a teachers’ group here believed the Ombudsman’s move could be the starting point of justice for teachers who served in the 2004 elections but whose signatures and handwritings have been tampered with and forged.

The Office of the Ombudsman has recommended impeachment for Borra for the voided P1.3-billion Mega Pacific election automation deal.

“I want the teachers’ voice to finally be heard. Because of what happened the teachers were put in a bad light. What we always wanted was for justice to prevail and that the respect for the teachers’ cause be put back,” Fe Dolot, president of the Legazpi City Public School Teachers Association Inc. (Leciptea), said.

Last May, the members of the Leciptea were dismayed and disappointed by the Commission on Elections en banc ruling on May 29 proclaiming Mayor Noel Rosal’s rival Michael Imperial as duly elected mayor of this city with 33,861 votes against Rosal’s 31,673.

During the May 2004 elections the Legazpi Board of Canvassers declared Rosal winner with 44,277 votes against Imperial’s 33,275 votes.

But Rosal’s 14,067 votes were invalidated by the Comelec Second Division composed of Florentino Tuazon and then commissioner Meloh Sadain, whose term of office expired early February.

The Comelec affirmed the division’s ruling on May 29 even as Rosal had a pending petition for certiorari with the Supreme Court.

After the release of the Comelec ruling, teacher-members of the Leciptea branded it as an affront to their dignity as teachers because it would cast doubts on their honesty and integrity, implying that they took part in cheating in the 2004 elections.

The teachers also decried the Comelec’s failure to hear their side before coming up with its ruling.

“We are holding the truth about the 2004 elections. The election results the teachers came up with were the truth. We can never accept that the truth be twisted or altered,” Dolot said.

Dolot added that because of what happened, the almost 400 teacher-members of the Leciptea are thinking of no longer rendering their service as members of the Board of Election Inspectors this 2007 elections.

“We are thinking twice if we will still serve in the 2007 elections. On my side, I am resolved not to serve. Other teachers share that intention also. But we will see. It depends on the justice we will get,” she said.

Currently, Rosal still owns the disputed mayor’s seat as the Supreme Court’s grant of his appeal for a temporary restraining order on the Comelec ruling favoring Imperial is still in effect. Ephraim Aguilar, PDI Southern Luzon Bureau