Petition to disqualify Negros Occ mayoral bet dismissed

Petition to disqualify Negros Occ mayoral bet dismissedDocuments show Valencia is Filipino
By Carla Gomez
Visayas Bureau
Last updated 06:56pm (Mla time) 05/25/2007

Negros Occidental provincial election supervisor Jessie Suarez said on  riday that the Comelec First Division declared that Valencia had  rovided sufficient proof that his nationality is Filipino and that he is no  onger a US citizen or immigrant.

The ruling was penned by presiding Commissioner  Resurreccion Borra and  commissioner Romeo Brawner.

De la Cruz, in his petition, said Valencia misrepresented himself in  his certificate of candidacy as a Filipino when he was not.

Valencia was an immigrant in the United States as early as 2004 and is now an American citizen, De la Cruz said. To prove his point he attached photocopies of Travel Information and Arrival Departure documents of
the Bureau of Immigration dated March 8, 2006 stating that Valencia was a US citizen.

However, the Comelec First Division ruled that the unsigned documents presented by De la Cruz could not be admitted as evidence in any proceedings.

It also took note of a notation at the bottom margin of the document  hat said “For the Bureau of Immigration Internal Verification use only.
Not to be used an official document outside of this office. Not valid without the signature of the verifier.”

As such, the evidence presented by De la Cruz for the cancellation of Valencia’s certificate of candidacy was “utterly unavailing,” The First Division ruled.

On the other hand, the order of the Bureau of Immigration dated Feb. 20, 2007 and the corresponding identification card issued, oath of allegiance dated Feb. 17, 2007 and renunciation of US citizenship dated March 23, 2007 sufficiently showed that the nationality of Valencia is
Filipino, the Comelec noted.

The BI in an order dated Feb. 20, 2007 said Valencia had taken his oath  f allegiance to the Republic of Philippines and is thereby deemed to  ave reacquired his Filipino citizenship.

It also ordered the Chief of the Alien Registration Division to issue  an identification certificate in favor of Valencia.

Duterte cancels gun ban exemptions in Davao Sur

By Eldie Aguirre
Mindanao Bureau
Last updated 07:07pm (Mla time) 05/25/2007
DIGOS CITY — Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, chairman of the Regional Peace and Order Council, ordered on Friday the cancellation of all gun ban exemptions issued in Davao del Sur in light of mounting political tension in the province.

Tension between the camps of Lakas gubernatorial bet Rep. Douglas Cagasand of his rival, Rep. Claude Bautista, has been such that the Comelec has had to delay the canvassing of election returns from at least four towns because of petitions for the returns’ exclusion filed by both sides.
Cagas’ camp claimed that the result of the balloting in Malita town, bailiwick of the Bautistas, was rigged while Bautista said there was evidence the results in Matanao, Bansalan and Sulop towns had been tampered with.

Maria Febes Barlaan, Comelec provincial supervisor, has submitted the petitions to the Comelec en banc for resolution.

Duterte said the total gun ban aims to prevent further bloodshed between the two groups.

On May 16, Isidro Sarmiento, Lakas mayoral candidate in Malita, and his son, Danilo, were killed during a shootout with followers of Bautista. One of Bautista’s bodyguards was injured in the shooting, which was triggered by reports Danilo had allegedly snatched an election return in Malita.

The authorities have filed charges against Bautista and his bodyguards. Bautista has promised to cooperate with the investigation although he has denied firing a gun during the incident.

“I don’t know why I am being charged. I did not carry a gun on that day,” he said, adding his that his opponents were taking advantage of the incident.

The National Bureau of Investigation, which is part of the task force investigate the shooting, said it has witnesses to back up the charges against Bautista.

In ordering the cancellation of the gun ban exemptions, Duterte warned Davao del Sur politicians and their bodyguards that they would be arrested if caught carrying guns outside their homes and those who resist arrest will be shot.

“If you do not surrender your firearms and you offer violent resistance to my order to the police and the military, then they will have to kill you,” Duterte said.

He said nobody will be exempted from the order — not even transients passing through Davao del Sur.

“Everybody would be subjected to body search to make sure no firearms could pass through the checkpoints,” Duterte said.

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Namfrel partial tally as of 11:58 p.m. May 24

By Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 03:41am (Mla time) 05/25/2007
MANILA, Philippines — NASSA/Namfrel partial unofficial tally as of 11:58 p.m. May 24, from 158,427 out of 224,748 precincts (70.49 percent of total)

1. Legarda 12,210,257
2. Escudero 11,942,783
3. Lacson 10,501,717
4. Villar 10,068,933
5. Pangilinan 9,587,549
6. Aquino 9,533,866
7. Angara 8,378,165
8. Honasan 7,829,119
9. Cayetano, A 7,764,283
10. Arroyo 7,612,471
11. Trillanes 7,448,141
12. Pimentel 7,308,035

Trillanes says he voted for Honasan

Trillanes says he voted for Honasan
By DJ Yap
Inquirer
Last updated 09:42pm (Mla time) 05/25/2007
MANILA, Philippines–Detained senatorial candidate Navy Lt. SG Antonio Trillanes IV did not have to think long and hard to fill in the last slot of his choices for the 12 senators.

“I voted for (former Sen. Gregorio) Honasan,” he said, referring to the independent candidate, who, like him, has had an interesting history with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

Since the Genuine Opposition (GO) had fielded only 11 candidates, including himself, Trillanes needed another name to complete the senatorial lineup.

“Definitely, I could not vote for anyone in (the administration’s) Team Unity,” he said on Friday after a hearing before a Makati court.

“In my opinion, he was the best choice for the 12th slot,” Trillanes said of Honasan, who also stands accused of participating in the failed Oakwood mutiny of 2003.

Trillanes is a leader of the Magdalo group, a group of junior officers who had called for reforms in the military. Honasan, as a young Army officer, led several coup attempts against the administration of Corazon Aquino.

Asked if he thought Honasan voted for him, he replied: “I don’t know. I’ll have to ask him.”

Trillanes spoke at the impromptu press conference after the hearing before Judge Oscar Pimentel of Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 148, in which he sought the extension of media access for himself.

Asked to comment on Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez’s remarks describing him as too “immature” to be a senator, he said: “Look who’s talking.”

Pressed to elaborate, Trillanes said Gonzalez had made a habit of making careless statements, “a dangerous thing for someone who has so much powers.”

“He should undergo psychological evaluation … Our justice secretary is psychologically unstable,” he said.

Many teachers haven’t been paid yet for poll duty

By Jerry E. Esplanada
Inquirer
Last updated 09:50pm (Mla time) 05/25/2007
MANILA, Philippines — Nearly two weeks after the midterm elections,
where they were cited by the Department of Education (DepEd) for their
“excellent performance,” many public school teachers nationwide have yet
to receive their P3,300 poll duty allowance.

Education Secretary Jesli A. Lapus has acknowledged the problem in a
letter to the Department of Finance.

A DepEd report furnished the Philippine Daily Inquirer said only 45.2
percent of some 450,000 teachers have been fully paid the P3,000 per
diem, 30 percent have been partially paid while 18.1 percent have not been
paid at all.

The same report disclosed that only 26.6 percent of teachers have
received the additional P300 transportation allowance, 26.1 percent have
been partially paid the same while 40.4 percent have yet to receive any
payment.

The DepEd report also indicated that in the Autonomous Region in Muslim
Mindanao or ARMM, not a single teacher has been paid for their May 14
poll duties.

In Bicol, only 7.7 percent of teachers have received their allowances
in full, while those in Southern Tagalog and the Cordillera
Administrative Region, only 7.1 percent and 14.3 percent got their per diems,
respectively.

Lapus has sought the assistance of Finance Secretary Margarito Teves in
“facilitating the payment of compensation of the members of the Board
of Election Inspectors (BEI) who are mostly public school teachers.”

In a May 22 letter, Lapus noted the Commission on Elections had
“certified that the checks for the payment of the BEI compensation had been
released to the city and municipal treasurers as of Friday, May 11,
2007.”

Lapus stressed “payments should have been made on election day, May
14.”

However, he said, “up to this time, more than a week after the
elections, many BEI members have not been paid or only partially paid.”

Lapus asked Teves to expedite the payment of the BEI compensation “in
as much as the city and municipal treasurers are administratively under
your department.”

According to the DepEd, the per diem of 92.9 percent of teachers in
Metro Manila and 92.3 percent of their counterparts in the Ilocos Region
has been “fully paid.”

However, it was an entirely different story in the country’s other
regions: Cagayan Valley, 42.9 percent; Central Luzon, 47.1 percent;
Mimaropa, 57.1 percent; Western Visayas, 70.6 percent; Central Visayas, 33.3
percent; Eastern Visayas, 50 percent; Western Mindanao, 25 percent;
Northern Mindanao, 33.3 percent; Southern Mindanao, 33.3 percent; and
Caraga, 75 percent.

The militant Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) assailed both the
Comelec and the DepEd for the teachers’ predicament.

According to ACT chair Antonio Tinio, ” it goes to show that the
so-called gratitude expressed by the government to the teachers for their
work during the elections was nothing more than lip service.”

The 15,000-strong ACT holds “both the Comelec and DepEd accountable for
their failure to abide by the memorandum of agreement (forged by both
agencies before the May 14 polls).”

Last week, the DepEd paid tribute to all public school teachers for
their “excellent performance as members of the Board of Election
Inspectors in the midterm elections.”

Police: Zaspa left Cebu

By Jolene Bulambot, Jhunnex Napallacan
Cebu Daily News
Last updated 04:44pm (Mla time) 05/25/2007
CEBU, Philippines – Defeated Sta. Fe mayoralty candidate Domingo Zaspa, who is implicated in the murder of rival Rogelio Ilustrisimo Sr., has reportedly left the country, said a police official.

Director Geary Barias of the Philippine National Police (PNP) said Zaspa left the country on May 21.

“We can’t really do anything about that because there is no warrant. Even if he is placed under the watchlist and there is no warrant. We have no basis to hold him,” Barias said.

“It is only the court who can issue a hold departure order. What we can do now is wait until the case is filed in court.”

The police director said authorities would work on extradition proceedings should an arrest warrant be issued against Zaspa.

Cebu Daily News yesterday visited a beach resort owned by Zaspa’s family in Sta. Fe, Bantayan Island, northern Cebu.

A caretaker said Zaspa left the country last Monday along with his wife Norma and daughter Delma.

Delma’s cellular phone was unreachable yesterday.

But a family member of Zaspa told TV Patrol Central Visayas yesterday that Zaspa did not leave the country but merely took a trip outside the province. The family said Zaspa was back in Cebu.

Zaspa and former policeman Arnulfo Pigon are facing murder complaint before the City Prosecutor’s Office for the killing of Ilustrisimo.

Witnesses allegedly saw Pigon shoot Ilustrisimo outside the Commission on Elections (Comelec) provincial office inside the Capitol compound on May 2.

A day after, police claimed, witnesses saw Zaspa talking to Pigon inside an uptown hotel.

Pigon, who is now in the custody of the National Bureau of Investigation following his surrender on Wednesday, sought a parallel parallel investigation by the NBI.

He said the police was making him the “fall guy” for Ilustrisimo’s murder.

“Wala akong kasalanan. Sana laliman ng pulis ang kanilang imbistigasyon (I’ve done nothing wrong. I hope the police would deepen their investigation),” Pigon said when interviewed over dyLA yesterday.

Pigon claimed that by blaming him, the Ilustrisimo family would not get the justice they deserved.

The former policeman claimed he did not know Zaspa and did not meet him in a hotel on May 3.

He said he was at the house of a sibling in Antipolo City on the day Ilustrisimo was killed.

He was also in Antipolo on May 8 when policemen allegedly tried but failed to arrest him in Masbate.

Police claimed that Pigon allegedly fired at them when he saw them approaching the house of his half-brother.

He said he did not surrender immediately because he feared for his life especially since there was a P1.3-million bounty for his capture.

Pigon, a former policeman who was dismissed from service, challenged the witnesses who implicated him to a lie detector test.

Pigon was presented to Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez yesterday.

He said he was ready to come to Cebu should the NBI hand him over to the police.

Senior Supt. Patrocinio Comendador Jr., head of Task Force Ilustrisimo, belittled Pigon’s claims.

Comendador said Pigon’s surrender and story were part of his “legal strategy.”

“The best thing he can do is air his side at the city prosecutor’s office, not the media,” he said.

“Ours is an objective investigation and it’s based on evidence without interference from anybody else. We determine the suspect, find evidence and we file the case.”

Ilustrisimo’s family, however, opposed the move, saying it would jeopardize the investigation already being conducted by the police.

Director Barias, for his part, said Pigon should clear things with the prosecutor’s office if he had questions about the police invetigation.

He said a parallel investigation by the NBI would be detrimental to the police’s efforts.

The victim’s son is not also amenable to a parallel probe by the NBI.

“We have credible witnesses who saw the incident,” said outgoing Sta. Fe Mayor Roger Ilustrisimo.

“The testimonies of the witnesses of the NBI, as far as I have learned, are not really credible because, according to their witnesses, they did not see the incident 100 percent.”

Roger asked the NBI to hand Pigon over to the police.

“His claim that he is just a fall guy is his and he can defend himself in court,” he said.

The mayor said the family felt that Pigon’s denial prevented investigators from uncovering the identity of the mastermind behind the killing.

“We believe that politics is behind this,” the mayor said.

If the NBI chose to keep Pigon in its custody, Roger said he hoped the suspect would not be given “special treatment.”

City Prosecutor Nicholas Sellon said that Pigon’s surrender would not affect the case since the suspect did not surrender to the investigating body – the police.

“We will not take cognizance of this person unless he will surrender to the PNP, or the NBI files a case against him here,” Sellon said.

Sellon said that if the NBI will file a case against Pigon in his office, prosecutors would ask Pigon, if he wished, to avail of inquest proceedings.

“But, if he would not agree, we will continue to resolve the case under the preliminary investigation.

Assistant City Prosecutor Marla Barcenilla said the prosecutor’s office received the record of the murder case yesterday morning.

Barcenilla’s staff, Tessie dela Calzada, said the delay in the turnover of the case records was due to the fact that several city prosecutor’s staff members served in the canvassing during the elections.

Dela Calzada said that they were preparing the subpoenas, asking Zaspa and Pigon to submit counter-affidavits.

With reports from Correspondent Chito O. Aragon and Reporter Nilda L. Gallo

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Let Manila decide’

By Suzzane Salva-Alueta
Cebu Daily News
Last updated 04:44pm (Mla time) 05/25/2007
MANILA, Philippines – From Bogo to Cebu City to Manila, ballot boxes with the results of the hotly contested 4th district race have traveled more than 680 kilometers.

Shaken by doubts that the documents could be spurious, Bogo’s special board of canvassers flew to Manila last night with the remaining 15 election returns.

This morning, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc will be asked to help determine whether the 15 Ers are authentic or tampered as alleged by candidate Benhur Salimbangon of One Cebu-Kampi.

“The board is now in serious doubt of the authenticity of the ERs but we don’t have the expertise to determine if these are genuine or not,” said Eddie Aba, panel chairman yesterday afternoon in Cebu City.

“That’s why we are referring the matter to Manila.”

Aba’s announcement caught parties by surprise.

This was the first time in a Cebu election that a canvass was interrupted to send over disputed election returns to Manila instead of being ruled on by the canvass board as part of its “ministerial duty” to tabulate poll results and proclaim a winner.

Bogo town has 196 election returns with 178 returns canvassed as of Thursday. Three ERs were unaccounted for. No official figures of the running tally have been released to the public yet.

Before they left for Manila, the board proclaimed Celestino Martinez Jr. as the winning mayoralty candidate in Bogo town , running mate Santiago Sevilla as vice mayor and the top five municipal councilors. The candidates weren’t around for the hasty proclamation. There was no time to contact them.

Aba hand carried a metal ballot box on board a Philippine Airlines flight that left past 6 p.m. while seven other ballot boxes were checked in as cargo. With its awkward size, the box couldn’t fit in the overhead bin and had to be tucked in a storage compartment a few meters from the pilot’s cabin.

Aba was accompanied by two r members of the canvass board Ian Michael Macaraya and Roberto Remolano, as well as three watchers each from the camp of Salimbangon and rival candidate Celestino Martinez III. Four lawyers of Salimbangon took the same flight.

On touchdown at 8:20 p.m. in Manila, the group was met at the airport by a Comelec vehicle and escorted by four members of the PNP Special Action Force to the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) where the ballot boxes were deposited in a room reserved by the Comelec for contested election returns.

Asked whether Commissioner Resurrection Borra had authorized the transfer of the ballot boxes and ERs to Manila, Aba said the decision “was our own initiative” in the canvass board.

His plan was to ask Comelec “experts” to examine the documents and then for the board to return immediately to Cebu to continue the canvass.

“They (the Comelec en banc) will have to act on this immediately, ” he told Cebu Daily News, “otherwise by June 30, the people of Bogo and the 3rd district will be deprived of a congressman.”

He was referring to the June 30 expiry of terms of office of elected public officials.

Last Wednesday, violence almost erupted outside the Comelec regional office in Cebu City , venue of the canvassing, when supporters of Salimbangon and Martinez faced off on Osmeña Boulevard, some of them carrying wooden bars and rocks.

A police officer quickly stepped in between both groups and headed off a physical confrontation.

The canvassing of ERs of Bogo, hometown of the Martinezes, will provide the decisive votes in a neck-on-neck congressional fight.

The special board of canvassers ruled at 2:15 p.m.yesterday to bring the contested results to Manila. Martinez’s lawyers protested and tried to have the canvassing finished in Cebu City. For nearly an hour, lawyers of both camp argued their cases. Lawyer Edgar Gica said the canvass had dragged on too long already and insisted that the precinct level results were authentic because of the presumption of regularity in the performance of duty of the Board of Election Inspectors. “Just because they (Salimbangon’s camp) feel that they are losing, they say that these ERs are irregular and questionable,” he said.

Martinez said that when the BOC allowed the canvass of the questioned election returns for the senatorial candidates and party-list group, it “already stamped with certainty the genuiness and authenticity of the deferred ERs.”

Gica said the canvass has been delayed from the time Salimbangon’s lawyers tried to make a “citizen’s arrest” of the members of the canvass board last Saturday on the grounds of electoral sabotage.

Noel Malaya, lead counsel of Salimbangon, said when they did not object to the canvassing of the ERs for national positions “it is not a waiver of our right to question” them.

Malaya said it was the prerogative of the board to refer the contested documents to the Comelec in Manila.

With Chris Ligan and Jhunnex Napallaca

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Police arrest Martinez’s poll watcher facing murder case

Cebu Daily News
Last updated 04:43pm (Mla time) 05/25/2007
CEBU, Philippines – A poll watcher for fourth district congressional bet Celestino Martinez III was arrested by policemen while joining supporters waiting for the results of the canvassing at the Commission on Elections Central Visayas (Comelec-7) regional office on Tuesday afternoon.

Rey Ylaya, 54, of Bogo, Cebu was sitting on his motorcycle parked along Osmena Boulevard outside the perimeter fence of Basilica del Sto. Nino, just a few meters away from the Comelec office, when he was arrested by members of the Mobile Parol Group (MPG).

Adelaida Villegas, a staff of the Office of the City Secretariat, said he called the MPG after recognizing Ylaya.

She said she was standing near the City Savings Bank building where the city’s legislative office is located.

Villegas said she immediately went home to get the copy of the arrest warrant for Ylaya, who is accused of killing her son William in barangay Pahina San Nicolas on Dec. 31, 1998.

Two MPG cars, numbered 20 and 9, responded to Villegas’ call.

Police Officers 2 Roy Jaime and Lauro Gonzales said Ylaya didn’t resist when they served the warrant of arrest for his murder case.

The policemen immediately went to court and got the commitment order for Ylaya, who is now detained in the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center.

Ylaya denied knowing Villegas or of the murder case against him. He claimed that he had been a businessman in the fertilizer business in Bogo since 1976.

Ylayas said he was a poll watcher of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats who was tasked to keep an eye on the ballot boxes which were being transferred from the Capitol to the Comelec regional office.

He said he was surprised when policemaen showed the warrant and handcuffed him.

Correspondent Chris Ligan

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Salimbangon has C-Cimpel’s copies of ERs from Bogo

Salimbangon has C-Cimpel’s copies of ERs from Bogo
By Jhunnex Napallacan
Cebu Daily News
Last updated 04:44pm (Mla time) 05/25/2007
CEBU, Philippines – The Cebu-Citizens’ Involvement and Maturation in People’s Empowerment and Liberation (C-Cimpel) will show its copy of the election returns from Bogo town to the special Board of Canvassers (BOC) if it is ordered to do so by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

“Di man mi kabalibad kay citizen’s arm man mi sa Comelec. Kung dunay order nga i-summon among ERs mao man na gyuy among sundon (We cannot say no because we are the citizen’s arm of the Comelec. If there is an order to summon our ERs, we have to follow),” said Msgr. Roberto Alesna, C-Cimpel spokesman.

He said the ERs were in the custody of Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal who sits as president of the citizens poll watchdog.

Vidal, he added, would just wait for the canvassing board to request the C-Cimpel’s 6th copy of the ERs.

Fourth district congressional aspirant Benhur Salimbangon has asked the canvassing board to compare C-Cimpel’s copies with that of the Comelec to determine if the latter’s ERs had been tampered with.

Under the Comelec’s General Instructions for the Board of Election Inspectors, the first copy of the ERs should be delivered to the city or municipal board of canvassers and the 6th copy to the C-Cimpel.

The C-Cimpel is the Cebu counterpart of the National Movement for Free Elections.

When C-Cimpel ended their operation quick count last Sunday, Salimbangon was leading by almost 4,000 votes as against his closest rival, outgoing Bogo Mayor Celestino Martinez III.

He, however, was not sure if all the ERs in the fourth district, including Bogo, had been tabulated because there were 504 ERs that had not been counted in the entire province because these could not be read.

He said he did not know if any of these 504 ERs came from the contested fourth district.

Alesna said Salimbangon had copies of C-Cimpel’s 6th copy of Bogo ERs after Vidal approved his request on Wednesday and upon consultation with Namfrel officials in Manila.

He stressed that they released only the photocopy of the ERs but would await a go-signal from the Comelec before releasing the original 6th copy of the election returns.

Alesna said Salimbangon did not get to see C-Cimpel because they did the photocopies and just furnished these to Salimbangon’s camp.

In a press conference yesterday, Salimbangon denounced what he believed as a clear evidence of “dagdag-bawas (votes padding and shaving)” in Bogo town in favor of his strongest rival, Martinez.

While he admitted he lost to Martinez in Bogo, Salimbangon claimed Martinez still engaged in dagdag-bawas operation to cover his poor showing in other towns of the fourth district.

“This is the will of God. I see this development as a miracle, nobody could believe that this kind of cheating will be exposed,” said Salimbangon in Cebuano.

In his presentation to the media, Salimbangon cited the election returns from the different barangay of Bogo that allegedly showed that votes were taken from him and credited to Martinez.

He showed discrepancies between the results copied from the 15 ERs in the possession of the Bogo special BOC and the ERs taken from C-Cimpel.

In barangay Dakit, Salimbangon said Martinez had 110 votes while he got only 40 votes based on C-Cimpel copy but in the Comelec ER, Martinez got 160 votes while he only had 10 votes.

But Martinez said he did not have any reason to cheat in his own bailiwick, adding that his father, former congressman Celestino Martinez Jr. in previous elections got a margin of at least 19,000 votes.

Martinez opposed the use of the ERs from C-Cimpel and he added that the Comelec never used the C-Cimpel copies in the previous elections.

He recalled they wanted to use C-Cimpel copies in the 2004 gubernatorial elections to prove that his father won over Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia but Comelec never allowed that.

Martinez called for the continuation of the canvassing using the Comelec ERs and for both camps to respect whatever would be the results.

Calauan not yet ready for Sanchez comeback

Calauan not yet ready for Sanchez comeback
By Romulo Ponte
Southern Luzon Bureau
Last updated 05:57pm (Mla time) 05/25/2007
CALAUAN, Laguna—The voting population of this municipality decided on
May 14 that this was not yet the time for the family of convicted
ex-mayor Antonio Brion Sanchez to stage a political comeback.

Official election results from the Commission on Elections (Comelec)
office in Calauan showed that reelected Mayor Buenafrido T. Berris of
Lakas-CMD received 10,770 votes against Allan Jun V. Sanchez, eldest son
of Sanchez who got 7,354 votes.

When Berris first ran for the mayoral position, he ended the
Sanchezes’ dominance of 49 long years in Calauan politics.

Allan Jun was a municipal councilman of the town for three terms or
nine years, the 3rd term of which put him on top of the eight winning
candidates.

Other members of the Sanchez family and kin, however, still enjoy
support from the Calaueños as shown by the recent elections.

Newcomer Allan Antonio V. Sanchez II, second son of the detained
Sanchez, won a seat in the municipal council as the third highest scorer last
May 14 elections.

A distant relative of the detained Sanchez, June Joseph F. Brion, won
the vice mayoral position in the elections against two other rivals.

The detained former Calauan mayor, who was convicted for the rape-slay
of a UP Los Baños coed and the murder of another student, is a Brion
on the maternal side.

Local political observers said that the recent elections showed that
the Sanchezes were trying to recover political supremacy in the town.

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