Mayor Evelio Leonardia called on lawyer Ma. Fatima Aspan to inhibit herself as acting poll officer of the Commission on Elections in Bacolod, to preserve the integrity of the voter registration process.
Aspan, the provincial election supervisor for Negros Occidental, was designated as acting Bacolod election officer starting Sept. 14 by Comelec Regional Director Wilfredo Jay Balisado, after an employee of Comelec Bacolod tested positive for COVID Sept. 12.
The result meant that all employees of Comelec Bacolod, including city election officer Kathrina Trinio-Caña, who were close contacts of the COVID-infected worker, went on isolation and were swabbed, while the office temporarily closed for disinfection.
Comelec Bacolod resumed operations after the designation of Aspan, considering the Sept. 30 deadline in the registration of voters for the May 2022 elections.
But Leonardia, in a press release from the city Sept. 19, expressed alarm over “the sudden and extremely unusual influx of transferee-registrants from out-of-town areas at the Bacolod office of the Comelec”, and called on Aspan to inhibit herself.
In his Sept. 17 letter to Aspan, a copy of which was received by her office Sept. 18, Leonardia said her designation “was temporary and good only until Caña posts a negative result in her RT-PCR test.”
He said Caña had a negative RT-PCR result on Sept. 15. But Aspan continued to supervise the affairs of Comelec Bacolod, including the ongoing voter registration, the mayor said.
“Despite the fact that Caña has tested negative for COVID, you did not have the delicadeza to return to your regular post at the PES. There is a very strong general impression that your presence at Bacolod Comelec until now, with the questionable massive influx there of transferee-registrants from out-of-town areas, especially from those previously served by Mr. (Alfredo Abelardo Bantug) Benitez as congressman, puts your integrity seriously in question,” Leonardia added in the press release.
Caña told the NEGROS NOW DAILY Sept. 18 that, as per policy of their office, they have to complete the 14-day isolation period, whether they yield positive or negative swab results as close contacts.
She said the whole Comelec Bacolod staff will report for work on Sept. 27.
In his Sept. 17 letter, Leonardia minced no words in expressing his opposition to Aspan’s temporary assumption as Comelec Bacolod EO in light of the reported COVID-19 infections among election personnel.
“While I personally commiserate with the situation, at the outset and with all due respect, I have strong reservations on this move. I, therefore, oppose your assumption as acting EO for Bacolod City,” he said.
He added that Aspan had served as election officer of Victorias City, which belongs to the province’s Third District.
“Without necessarily casting aspersions, there are strong doubts, however, on your impartiality considering that my opponent, who had already declared to run as Bacolod City mayor in the upcoming national and local elections, is none other than Mr. Alfredo Abelardo Bantug Benitez, who served as a three-term congressman in the 3rd District where you used to work as election officer,” Leonardia said.
He also cited Aspan’s presence at Comelec Bacolod on July 19 when the Election Registration Board held a hearing over the issue of the residency/domicile of Benitez.
“Your unwarranted presence, together with Mr. Benitez, at the Bacolod Comelec office…cannot just be a coincidence but an act inappropriate, unbecoming and highly suspicious of a PES, and which could even be construed as intended to press undue influence over the outcome of the ERB decision, which came out to be favorable to Benitez,” Leonardia added.
He also claimed that Aspan, as acting city EO, “exercised a very confusing policy, which miserably affected crowd management and wrought havoc upon social distancing protocols against COVID-19”.
Leonardia reminded Aspan that recently, a spike in COVID cases has been recorded, especially that the Delta variant is apparently affecting Bacolodnons.
“With this development, you should have, by your initiative, ordered the temporary stoppage of voters’ registration or, at the very least, controlled the number per day to what is allowed under the present health protocols,” Leonardia said. — CGC
