Court trashes poll protest vs Tuburan mayor, vice mayor

THE Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 29 of Toledo City dismissed the election protest against Tuburan Mayor Democrito Diamante filed by his rival Rose Marie Suezo for alleged massive fraud in polls last May.

Judge Ruben Altubar also declared “insufficient in form and content,” the election protest of Daphne Marie Lagon against Danilo Diamante, Democrito’s brother and vice mayor of Tuburan town.

Altubar’s decision said both Suezo and Lagon’s protests were based on “bare allegations and are not supported by convincing and substantial evidence.”

On the allegation that the camp of Diamante tampered with the compact flash memory cards of the precinct count optical machine, the court ruled that they should have raised it during the counting.

“As to the alleged threats on would-be voters by alleged terrorists, no police report of any such untoward incident is shown,” the order dated last July 30 said.

Democrito won the Tuburan mayoralty seat over Suezo after clinching 19, 613 votes compared to his rival’s 12, 878.

Meanwhile, Danilo received more than 18,000 votes, beating Lagon 12,602.