COURT DECLARES JESUS CALO WINNER OVER INCUMBENT RAMON CALO AS MAYOR OF CARMEN, AGUSAN DEL NORTE
From Mindanao Gold Star Daily
Court boots out mayor, replaces him with bro.
Obet Samonte
Butuan City – A regional trial court here has declared Jesus Calo as the winner in the May 14, 2007 mayoral election in Carmen, Agusan del Norte.
Judge Francisco Maclang of the 3rd Branch of the Regional Trial Court here granted Calo’s petition and declared him the town’s duly elected mayor with a plurality of 1,018 votes over the votes received by his brother, Ramon.
Ramon was proclaimed winner on May 16, 2007 based on the canvass by the Carmen Municipal Board of Canvassers crediting him with 4,818 votes against that of Jesus’s 4,540 votes or a difference of 278 votes. Jesus filed an election protest alleging that the May 14 electoral exercise was marred by fraud.
In his 101 page decision, Maclang held that 981 votes based on stray ballots and 315 votes based on marked, claimed, written by one person, writeen by two persons and stray ballots should be deducted from Ramon’s votes.
Aside from declaring Jesus as the winner in the mayoral contest, Maclang also granted his P100-thousand claim for damages. He also ordered the Aguan del Norte Provincial COMELEC to install Jesus as Carmen town’s duly elected Mayor.
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Blogger’s comment: In proving that those ballots were stray or written by one or two persons, what evidence and testimony does the petitioner presented? Ramon Calo belongs to LAKAS CMD of the Plaza family. With this recent decision, only Remedios T. Romualdez Mayor Nilo Soliva remained as Plaza ally in Agusan del Norte. Jesus “Toto” Calo ran under the banner of KAMPI party carried locally by the Amante political clan.
