Former Cabinet secretary and staunch Duterte ally Leoncio Evasco Jr. plans to contest the gubernatorial win of outgoing Rep. Arthur Yap (right, center, in striped polo) whom he accused of massive vote-buying. Yap, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s agriculture secretary, denied Evasco’s accusation. —PHOTO BY LEO UDTOHAN
TAGBILARAN CITY — The star power of President Duterte and his daughter, Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio of Davao City, didn’t work magic for his close friend who ran for governor in Bohol province.
Former Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr. lost to a staunch ally of Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, outgoing Rep. Arthur Yap of Bohol’s third district.
Yap, who served as agriculture secretary when Arroyo was president, was proclaimed governor early Thursday. He got 326,895 votes while Evasco had 324,734—a margin of 2,161 votes.
Vote-buying
Even before the Commission on Elections proclaimed Yap as the winner in the May 13 polls, Evasco had announced plans to contest the results and ask the Comelec to declare a failure of elections due to massive vote-buying.
Evasco, 74, said he received reports of vote-buying by the camp of Yap in nearly all towns of the province and in Tagbilaran City.
“The possibility of defeat was therefore no longer a remote possibility. And yet, I did not entertain fear because I was well aware of the enormous task and responsibility that an electoral victory would bring,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.
He said he had already instructed the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC)-Bohol and the Hugpong ng Pagbabago-Bohol to prepare the filing of a petition to declare a failure of elections in the province.
“I wish I can say the people have spoken, but that would be a monumental lie. This is not my fight. It has never been. But I will fight it to my last breath because it is a fight of the Boholano people and because they deserve nothing less,” Evasco said.
Yap, in a separate statement, disputed his rival’s charge of failure of elections, saying the Boholanos merely decided to choose him.
“The people have spoken. I have won this election,” he said.
David and Goliath
The battle between Yap and Evasco had been likened to the biblical fight between David and Goliath.
But it was Yap, the official candidate of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan, who was viewed as the Goliath since he had the machinery and money to fuel his gubernatorial bid.
Evasco ran under the NPC, which has long been his party.
He ran on the campaign slogan of “The real Boholano,” an apparent dig at Yap, who is not a native of the province but has married a Boholana.
Without enough financial resources, Evasco was banking on the popularity of the President and his daughter, who both endorsed his candidacy during rallies here.
During his miting de avance in Garcia-Hernandez town, Duterte flew to Bohol to pitch for his friend who had been with him when he was a prosecutor in Davao City.
Coco Martin
Yap had his own series of rallies in the towns of Dauis, Maribojoc and Balilihan, and in Tagbilaran to cap his campaign on May 9. But the attraction in his rallies was a popular actor, Coco Martin.
Evasco refused to do the sing-and-dance routine while campaigning, choosing to speak instead to his audience. Yap didn’t focus on speeches but sang his way to the hearts of the crowd, with his favorite ballad “Remember Me” by singer Renz Verano.
On election day, reports came out that two P100 bills were tucked in the sample ballots of Yap, who denied that these came from his camp.
Vote canvassing in the province didn’t go smoothly.
Defective SD cards
Eight SD cards were found defective and had to be reconfigured at the Comelec office in Cebu City. The devices contained the returns from the towns of Sagbayan, Tubigon and Panglao.
When the canvassing resumed on Wednesday night, about 300 supporters of Evasco held a prayer-vigil in front of the capitol to protect the uncounted votes.
“We are here to pray. We wished that the truth would come out, the real sentiment of the people would come out. We know for a fact that Evasco is winning. We know for a fact there was massive vote-buying,” said Dr. Sharleen Lim, who lost her mayoral bid to her nephew, Tagbilaran Mayor John Geesnell Yap II.
“[W]e were hoping against hope that this last precinct would show the real score,” Lim said.
The people dispersed after Yap was proclaimed past 3 a.m.