Former Mayor Bitong Bigote, a convicted felon, coming from a far forsaken town migrated to yet another far forsaken town and filed his Certificate of Candidacy (CoC) for Mayor therein, with the illusion that he is going to be a Mayor forever.
The incumbent Mayor of that other far forsaken town, Mayor Pepong Mahina, is worried that former Mayor Bitong Bigote, with questionable qualifications, could emerge as the new chief executive of their town. Mayor Pepong Mahina should thank his wife, the short, plump, gossipy, despicable woman, who acts as the Mayora, who, in a recently concluded public ceremony, made demeaning gestures and threats to the Bigote Camp. This prompted former Mayor Bitong Bigote to file a withdrawal of his CoC for Mayor. But a concealed dark agenda lurks behind such seemingly innocent act of withdrawal because before the last day for substitution of candidates, former Mayor Bitong Bigote’s son, Bitong Binatillo, filed a CoC to substitute his father, for the same position of Mayor.
Several days later, the father and son team did the following acts in said town:
1) Conspiring with the Division Schools Superintendent and other DepEd personnel and sponsored, arranged and conducted an all-expense free transportation, food, drinks affair for public school teachers and registered voters at the Copa Capuyan, a local Beach Resort where more than 10 buses were used for their transportation;
2) The father and son team required the other participants to wear T-Shirts with the name “Bitong Binatillo, the new strong Mayor” printed in over-sized colored letters;
3) During the whole day affair, there was music that was played loudly and repeatedly which turned out to be the political advertisement of Bitong Binatillo, where he sang to the tune of Shalalalala; and
4) The father, former Mayor Bitong Bigote, in a speech, promised the public school teachers, who are members of the Electoral Board for the May 9, 2022 National and Local Elections, that in the event that they can soon occupy the seat of power, they will be giving hazard pay in the amount of P3,000.00 each for the public school teachers, and asked them to vote for Bitong Binatillo;
Thus, Mayor Pepong Mahina, through his wife, Mayora Mahina, filed a case for vote-buying and vote selling claiming that the provisions of Section 261 (a), (b) and (0) of the Omnibus Election Code were violated. The Comelec dismissed the petition for insufficiency of evidence to establish a prima facie case. This decision resulted in the massive gathering of supporters of Mayor Pepong Mahina in front of the local Comelec Office. The Election Officer, who has chosen to be re assigned in this far forsaken town, instead of being suspended for graft charges for accepting money from candidates, had second thoughts on whether he made the right choice. He was panic-stricken. Not knowing what to do, he notified his Regional Election Director, instead of asking for advice from his supervisor, thereby, by-passing the latter, because of embarrassment as to his incompetence concerning these matters even if he graduated with honors and mastering the Holy Bible in his undergraduate course.
Is the Comelec correct in dismissing the petition for vote-buying? To quote the desperate Mrs. Mayora: “What? after all the evidence we presented, the blatant and obvious violations committed by the Bigote Camp, and they get away, with it? We are on the right side of the issue? How come we are wrong? This is a tragedy and is contrary to justice, we will file an appeal!” Find out what really happened in this case on our Election Day Segment at 9:00 o’clock in the morning on November 12, 2021 at Morning Balitaktakan on Regional News Group Luzon.
*** Comments/opinions made in this article are made by me in my capacity as a lawyer and not as an employee of the Comelec.
