Polls decided by coin toss

SCHOOL officials help clean up the garbage left behind by voters and candidates of the recent barangay elections at City Central School in Cebu City. JUNJIE MENDOZA/CEBU DAILY NEWS

Four contests for village chairmanship in Nueva Ecija and Pangasinan provinces have been decided by lottery to break ties in vote results.

Commission on Elections (Comelec) officials in Nampicuan and Pantabangan towns in Nueva Ecija, and Bayambang town and San Carlos City in Pangasinan resorted to the tossing of coins and drawing of lots, methods that are allowed under the Omnibus Election Code to break ties, to choose the next leaders in four villages there.

In Pangasinan, Milette Lopez, Bayambang election officer, said Leo Junio won as Pogo barangay (village) captain after picking a rolled sheet of paper marked “Punong Barangay” (village chair).

Lopez said Junio had tied with another candidate, Alexander Meligorio, at the end of the counting of votes on Monday night.

“At first, Junio was hesitant. What he wanted was a recount. But his lawyer later prevailed upon him to agree to a drawing of lots to break the tie,” Lopez said by telephone.

Junio and Meligorio, both running for the position for the first time, received 337 votes each.

In San Carlos City, Jose Martinez won as barangay captain in PNR Site in another drawing of lots on Monday night. Martinez and another candidate, Ligaya de la Cruz, got 201 votes each.

In the fight for village chair of Recuerdo in Nampicuan, Nueva Ecija, candidates Epidio Ibuyat and Antonio Valdez both received 342 votes after the canvassing on Monday night. On Tuesday morning, the Comelec held a drawing of lots, which resulted in Valdez’s victory.

The tie between Rosario Torres and Dante Valdez, who each received 459 votes in their fight for village chairmanship of Marikit in Pantabangan, was broken by another lottery.

In Romblon province, Angelito Gara and Lorna Gervacio, candidates for village kagawad of Agnonoc in Ferrol town, agreed to toss a coin after getting 126 votes each and tying for the seventh and last seat in the village council. Gara won.

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

Wrong number

Coin tossing might have resolved a case in Barangay Poblacion in Calatrava town, if only the tie between Ivanhue Fruelda and Greco Moscoso, who both got 128 votes, was discovered early on, said Val Mendoza, Romblon election supervisor.

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 as the seventh winning councilor.

“It was after the proclamation and all the clapping and cheering when the watchers noticed the error,” Mendoza said by telephone.

“[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, may file a petition to correct the error at the Comelec office in Manila, which in turn would order the board to reconvene and resolve the tie. The process may take weeks to months, Mendoza said.

In Isabela province, cousins Nicanor and Faustino Cabalonga resorted to a coin toss to decide who among them would occupy the fourth and fifth seats in the village council of Alinguigan 3rd in Ilagan City.

Nicanor won the toss, earning him the right to occupy the fourth spot.

Friendly contest

In a village in Tacloban City, two friends ended up drawing lots to determine the winner for village chair.

Rosita Moreto, 64, and Cora Sevilla, 71, had 61 votes each out of the 288 votes cast. Aside from Sevilla and Moreto, four others ran for the same post.

Sevilla turned out to be the lucky one since she was able to pick up the piece of paper that read “No. 1” during the drawing of lots. Reports from Gabriel Cardinoza and Villamor Visaya Jr., Inquirer Northern Luzon; Armand Galang, Inquirer Central Luzon; Maricar Cinco and Shiena Barrameda, Inquirer Southern Luzon, and Joey Gabieta, Inquirer Visayas