Coin toss comes in handy to break ties in barangay polls

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SAN PEDRO, Laguna, Philippines — Coin tossing has again become useful in breaking ties among candidates for the barangay (village) elections last Monday.

Such was the case in settling the electoral race among candidates for barangay kagawad (village councilors) in the island province of Romblon.

In Barangay Agnonoc in Ferrol, a sixth-class fishing town, candidates Angelito Gara and Lorna Gervacio agreed to toss a coin after both got 126 votes in Monday’s barangay elections and tied for the seventh seat in the village council. Gara won in the coin toss.

In the island village of Logbon in Romblon town, Adrian Macaya won a seat in the council against Romeo Malacapo after a coin flipping resolved the deadlock.

Tossing the coin might have resolved the case in Barangay Poblacion in Calatrava too, if only the tie between Ivanhue Fruelda and Greco Moscoso, who both got 128 votes, was discovered early on, according to Romblon election supervisor Val Mendoza, Tuesday.

During the canvassing, the Barangay Board of Canvassers (BBOC) mistook the last digit of Moscoso’s votes as ‘0’ instead of ‘8’ and proclaimed Fruelda the seventh winning councilor.

“It was after the proclamation and all the clapping and cheering when the watchers noticed the error,” Mendoza said in a phone interview.

“(An) error discovered after the proclamation makes it a different story because the BBOC’s jurisdiction has ceased by then,” he said.

Moscoso, he said, could file a petition to correct the error at the Commission on Elections office in Manila, which in turn would order the board to reconvene and resolve the tie. The process may take weeks to months.

Coin tossing is only one form of “drawing lots,” which is allowed by the law. In the May elections, mayoral candidates in San Teodoro, Oriental Mindoro resorted to a coin toss to break the tie.

Mendoza said unlike in the barangay level, candidates for higher positions like the governors, agree to draw lots but oftentimes file election protests later. In some cases, he said, candidates would rather concede than participate in a game of luck.

“Of course there are some who want to keep their pride instead of taking the risk of losing the elections to a toss coin,” he said.

Meanwhile, in Masbate province in Bicol, winning candidates for barangay captain in Sorosimbajan, Esperanza town; Magkaipit, San Fernando town; and Baang, Mobo town, could not be proclaimed because of ties in the election results.

Also in Baang, Mobo, a man identified as Richard “Andoy” Ramos, known in the village as a supporter of reelectionist barangay chairman Samuel Bolon, is a suspect in the killing of a man named Larry Canale, a supporter of Ramos’ rival, Bobby Zarsuelo. Canale was shot Monday afternoon in front of a polling precinct while villagers were casting their votes.

Alberto Cañares III, the provincial election supervisor, said there was also a tie for the 7th and 8th post of “kagawad” in Barangay Lahong, San Fernando town.

He said Comelec would settle the ties within five days by coin toss or drawing of lots in accordance with the Omnibus Election Code of the Philippines.

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