Joey Vincent C. Motel | April 25, 2022
Incumbent Barugo, Leyte Municipal Mayor Macel Avestruz has formally submitted her electoral protest to contest her supposed defeat against Dr. Aron Balais during the recent national and local elections, May 9, 2022.
In her protest filed at the Regional Trial Court at the Bulwagan ng Katarungan in Tacloban City dated May 18, 2022, Avestruz highlighted that there is a need to conduct technical examinations of all vote counting machine (VCMs) used in the municipality during the elections.
The urgency came after Barugo recorded 1,457 unaccounted votes for the mayoral contest and another 1,523 rejected ballots. These, Avestruz pointed out, could very well affect the electoral results wherein she lost via close ten (10) votes against Balais.
The staggering number of stray votes caused by the seemingly inaccuracy of the VCMs therefore clouded the veracity of the result of the elections. In a closely-knit and highly contested elections, such number of disenfranchised ballots stained the integrity of the VCM and the result will not reflect the true choice of the electorate, Avestruz stated.
Thus she filed an electoral protest to open ballots from certain precincts to examine, revisit, recount and re-appreciate the votes. The incumbent mayor hoped that the said precincts would show the discrepancy and further strengthen her claim that indeed there is inaccuracy of the VCMs in reading the ballots.
The recent local elections in Barugo was a highly-volatile situation wherein Avestruz was beaten by Balais, a resident physician of the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC), 9926 to 9936. In the vice-mayoral race, Avestruz’ tandem Josephine Tiu secured reelection after edging Balais’ running mate Felix Diloy, 9299 to 9096.
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