CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines – Lawyers from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) have moved to disqualify the son of Cagayan de Oro Mayor Rolando Uy from the 2025 congressional race in the city.

In an 18-page petition on Tuesday, November 26, the Comelec law department sought to disqualify former Cagayan de Oro vice mayor Raineir Joaquin “Kikang” Uy from the race for the congressional post in the city’s 1st District for alleged election registration fraud.

Kikang is currently the chairman of the city’s largest barangay in terms of voting population, a position he won a year after losing the 2022 congressional race to Lordan Suan, now the district’s representative.

‘Implausible influx’

The petition, signed by Comelec directors and lawyers Maria Norina Tangaro-Casingal, Albert Leonard Rodriguez, and Persis del Camat-Dabalos, alleged that Kikang, as barangay chairman, deliberately issued residency certificates to applicants despite their failure to show proper identification papers.

The Comelec lawyers, in the petition, said the barangay residency certificates were found to be “dubious.”

They also said the mayor’s son “stands to benefit considering that barangay certification is an accepted identification in support of an application of a person seeking registration as a voter in Barangay Carmen, a barangay in the district where he is seeking public elective office.”

The move against the younger Uy followed the disapproval of 1,161 application papers of people who tried to register as new Carmen voters. They failed to show up during a hearing called by the local Election Registration Board (ERB) despite summons to prove their residency in Carmen.

The Comelec legal department said there was an “implausible influx” of people who attempted to register as Carmen voters.

“There is no other logical reason for his (Kikang’s) acts other than to purposely and intentionally favor and further his candidacy… (Kikang) willfully and maliciously employed the fraudulent scheme of issuing barangay certifications even to non-residents of Barangay Carmen to influence and induce them to register as voters…,” read part of the petition.

Blame the congressman

In a statement, Kikang denied that he resorted to fraudulent methods, saying what he did was merely to ensure that Carmen residents would be able fulfill their civic duty and exercise their right to vote.

Kikang said the increase in voter applicants in Carmen was a result of the public responding to calls from Comelec to register and participate in the election process.

He noted that only 5% of the applications were rejected, mostly due to the applicants’ failure to attend an ERB hearing. He said many of them were workers who couldn’t afford to miss work just to attend the hearing.

Kikang blamed the district’s incumbent congressman for his legal troubles, accusing Suan of using his influence as congressman to have him disqualified from the 2025 race.

Father’s ‘joke’

In the 2023 barangay elections, the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) raised alarm over what it called widespread vote-buying, saying it received reports about many voters in Barangay Carmen allegedly receiving as much as P6,000 each in exchange for supporting select candidates.

Carmen has long been a pillar of the Uy family’s political dominance. Since the 1990s, the mayor and his family members have alternated in holding the position of barangay chairperson.

A controversial post-barangay election remark from the elder Uy has cast a shadow over his son Kikang — a video that has since gone viral on social media captured the mayor making what appeared to be a casual, offhand remark about the election in Carmen while speaking with city hall employees. His quick follow-up, labeling the comment a joke, did little to quell the growing concerns.

In the video, the elder Uy can be heard saying: “Napaksian mo? Wala gyud ko’y nadunggan nga napaksian… Gusto ninyong usbon? Paabota ninyo ang 2025… Pangutan-on mo nako – taga Carmen di mo gusto padak-an? Basin daghan na mo transfer sa Carmen ha, 1st District ha? Ang importante nga tanan man kaha nakadawat? Nakadawat? Kung gusto ninyong padak-an unya gusto mog padayon to, transfer mo sa Barangay Carmen. Siguro man ko nga next year naay registration.”

(Did you get your share in full? I didn’t hear anyone who got his share slashed… You want to change it? Wait until 2025… Let me ask you — don’t you residents of Carmen want it increased? Maybe more of you will transfer to Carmen, the 1st District, right? What’s important is that everyone received something, right? If you want it increased and want it to continue, transfer to Barangay Carmen. I’m sure there will be registration next year.)

‘Ridiculous surge’

Over local broadcaster Magnum Radio, Suan denied that he had anything to do with the move in the Comelec to disqualify Uy.

In July, Suan sounded alarm bells over what he called a “ridiculous” surge in voter registration attempts in Carmen. He said more than 15,000 people had sought to register as new voters in the barangay within a span of just six months.

According to Suan, the surge began in February, when roughly 6,500 people attempted to register as new voters. It was followed by another batch of 8,700 applicants in July, pushing the total count to more than 15,000.

“Increases in the number of voters are expected, but this kind of surge is simply ridiculous,” Suan told Rappler in July.

But it was not just the sheer numbers that have raised eyebrows – Suan alleged that many of the applicants weren’t even residents of Carmen, and some came from Cagayan de Oro’s 2nd District.

“Cagayan de Oro has seen a construction boom, with new subdivisions cropping up all over the city, but not in Carmen. So where are these people coming from?” he said, adding that it looked “systematic and massive.”

Suan, however, said he brought the matter to the attention of the House of Representatives so one of its committees would initiate a separate investigation into the surge in the number of voters seeking to register in Carmen. – Rappler.com

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