INQUIRER.net Eleksyon 2007

Losing Pampanga bet Pineda leads in recount

Central Luzon Desk

Tonette Orejas

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga—Losing Pampanga gubernatorial candidate Lilia Pineda has been leading in the first two weeks of the revision of votes cast in the 2007 elections, her lawyer said on Sunday, a claim that the lawyer of Catholic priest-turned-governor Eddie Panlilio strongly contested.

“We are very, very satisfied with the initial outcome,” said George Irwin Garcia, lawyer of Pineda.

Since beginning the revision on August 12 in Manila, the Commission on Elections (Comelec), through 21 committees, has opened at least 1,000 of 4,688 ballot boxes in the province’s 20 towns and this capital city.

Without giving figures, Garcia said Pineda has obtained additional votes because several ballots with her nickname “Nanay Baby” have been credited to her recently.

“More votes have been added to us, those which were not counted by teachers at the precinct level, then removed from us,” he said.

“Other irregularities were discovered,” he added, requesting that the details of these be mentioned later.

But the governor’s lawyer, Ernesto Francisco Jr., said Garcia’s claims are the “product of imagination and creativity.”

“The truth is you can count with your two hands the number of ballots with the nickname Nanay Baby,” Francisco said.

Lilia Pineda or Pineda was often the name her voters wrote on their ballots, he said.

Garcia said if all 4,688 ballot boxes could turn up with one or two ballots with the nickname “Nanay Baby,” Pineda could easily overturn the 1,147 margin of votes of Panlilio.

He said the so-called straying of ballots written with “Nanay Baby” was a result of “administrative brouhaha” by the Comelec.

He said the Comelec’s law department released the directive approving the “Nanay Baby” nickname on May 10, 2007. This was released by the Comelec Pampanga on May 22 that year, he said. Pineda’s son, Lubao Mayor Dennis Pineda, said this was released on the eve of the elections.

Comelec Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer did not reply to calls from the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

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