Diamante toughing it out in Tuburan

Tuburan Mayor Aljun Diamante is in danger of losing his seat. He said he will fight to keep it till the end or at least until the 2019 elections.

Diamante is supposed to be on his third -- and last -- term but if the court ruling that found him to have lost the election becomes final and he is ousted as a result, he would be eligible to seek a fresh mandate in 2019 and, if successful, to seek re-election in 2022 and 2025.

The strategy to contest the decision of Regional Trial Court Judge Hermes Montero in the election protest filed by Diamante’s 2016 rival Daphne Lagon therefore makes sense but only if he could hold on to the office while his appeal is pending.

Diamante’s situation is not without local precedent. In 2007, Tining Martinez “lost” the election for 4th district congressman to Benhur Salimbangon and protested. The case went all the way up to the Supreme Court who eventually ordered Tining’s installation in Congress.

As expected, the new congressman was ecstatic when the decision became final and an entry of decision entered. But his joy turned to frustration as Benhur was able to hang on to his seat through deft legal maneuver and with the cooperation of the House leadership. When he was finally sworn in, Tining had only a few weeks left of what was supposedly a three-year term. He and Benhur went up against each again in 2010 and the latter not only won, he was free to seek, as he in fact sought and won, two re-elections.

Back to Diamante’s case, some legal observers are asking if he could have fared better in the protest or at least bought more time if he had filed a counter-protest. Lagon had protested the results in all the 79 precincts in Tuburan but when the manual cont in the first 11 precincts showed her not only overcoming Diamante’s slim winning margin of 46 votes but leading him by 93, she dropped her protest in the 68 remaining precincts. Montero promptly granted the withdrawal.

I’m sure that this is going to be one of the matters that will be raised in Diamante’s appeal, whether or not a party in an election case, in which the only issue involved is the determination of the mandate of the people expressed through an election, may partially withdraw his or her protest and whether or not the court could validly and correctly determine that mandate on the basis of the results of a partial recount.

But observers are asking if Diamante could have avoided his predicament if he had filed a counterprotest and if such failure was due to miscalculation or overconfidence on his camp.

That point is, of course, academic now and wringing their hands over it will not change anything for the Tuburan mayor, who incidentally, is also the president of the Cebu mayors league. He has bigger fish to fry.