A ranking regional official of the Commission on Elections is in hot water after he was accused by seven of his colleagues for alleged “dagdag-bawas” or vote padding and or shaving in the 2007 elections. Lawyer Veronico Petalcorin, assistant regional director of the Comelec based in Region VII in Cebu City, was accused of an election offense by seven lower ranking poll officials led by lawyer Elisio Labaria, provincial Comelec supervisor. The other complainants were Siegfried Saniel, Divina Gamutin, Gerardo Lofranco, Roland Amora and Rouel Alquisalas, election officers of Garcia Hernandez, Panglao, Buenavista, Guindulman and Dimiao, respectively. As of last report, it was gathered that the case which was filed before the Comelec Law Department was due for resolution. The respondent was asked to present his counter-affidavit during the hearing set last April 15. In his own affidavit, Labaria said on May 1, 2007, he received a call from Petalcorin who was then the Provincial Comelec Supervisor. Labaria who was then the Comelec election officer of Valencia said he was called by Petalcorin for an important meeting. Also present in that meeting were the election officers of Ubay and Tubigon.

In that meeting which was the fiesta of Tagbilaran City, Petalcorin told the three that there would be a special operations to be conducted during the May 14, 2007 elections. The ranking Comelec official said the operations involved some party list belonging to the administration and instructed the three poll officials, being chairmen of the canvassing board in their jurisdiction, to manipulate the result of the canvass in favor of such party list groups for a certain monetary consideration.

Then Labaria and company inquired how it could be done since the canvassing will be done publicly with several watchers in attendance. With this question, Petalcorin reportedly told them that they (election officers) would talk with the tabulators before the canvassing started since they were the ones who would make the entry into the Certificates of Canvass (COC), to influence or bribe them and order them to alter the canvassed figures entered into the COC, in favor of the administration party list groups after the canvassing is done, which would be the proper time “we should declare a recess for the preparation of the COC when there would be no watchers hanging around”.

According to Labaria, the three of them objected outright to the Petalcorin proposal adding that it was illegal and very precarious. With this answer, Petalcorin reportedly insinuated that they would not be given their budget allocated for the special operations if they would not collaborate. As a result, he was assigned in Bantayan Island in Cebu instead of remaining in Valencia. It was not known if his transfer has something to do with his refusal to cooperate with his immediate superior's offer to manipulate the election results. Then Labaria later knew that Petalcorin also called other election officers for the same special operations. The other seven elections officers were also called to a meeting on April 27 and they were briefed of the dagdag bawas operations in favor of the party list groups which Petalcorin did not mention during the meeting.

COUNTER AFFIDAVIT

In a 10-page Counter Affidavit with Position Paper, the assistant regional director denied the charges filed against him. In denying the charges, he said, the so-called dagdag bawas scheme as allegedly proposed to complainants was so puerile, far-fetched, grossly impossible to achieve, and certainly doomed to fail that, it borders upon an insult to allude such scheme to him. Petalcorin said, modestly aside, “I have obtained quite an extensive knowledge and experience in election laws such that “I was subsequently promoted to Assistant Regional Election Director for Comelec regional office, Region VII. In advancing his argument that there was no truth to the accusation, Petalcorin said any self-respecting Comelec official would know that, even during “recess”, the proceedings of the Board of Canvassers would still be open to the general public, the mass media, the watchers of the various parties and candidates, as well as the citizen's arm and ordering everybody to leave the room would immediately generate suspicion and lead to a very serious protest.

But in their joint reply affidavit, Saniel, Gamutin, Lofranco and Escobilla, they said Petalcorin's counter-affidavit as a whole was a mere set of general denial which is the weakest form of defense in any litigation. Zeroing in on Petalcorin's claim of extensive knowledge of election law gaving rise to his promotion, the four election officers said this clearly exhibited his arrogance and misplaced pride under the wrong belief that it was only he who has a monopoly of knowledge of the election laws. Besides, they said, it was contrary to human experience that a person cannot commit a crime just because he was knowledgeable of the law, for knowledge of the law cannot supplant the operation of a person's mind possessed with evil intent. As to the question why it took them three years to come out in the open and filed the instant case, the answer was that complainants realized only later that they were gradually made to pay for their refusal to go along with the idea of the respondent to commit illegal activities by tampering election results or dagdag bawas.