BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Mayor elect Jilson Tubillara yesterday said that he would welcome any election protest questioning the results of the May 9 elections in San Enrique, Negros Occidental.
Tubillara said he won by 10 votes against his challenger, Napoleon Delfinado Jr.
He added that it is normal in politics for a losing candidate to file an election protest if the result is not favorable to him.
“Some people will not immediately accept their defeat in politics, which is normal”, Tubillara, who took his oath of office before Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson at the Provincial Capitol in Bacolod City, said.
His son, Dr. Jiff Tubillara, retired PMaj. Reynaldo Severino, Kirk Debulgado and Armando Magallanes, who also won as councilors under the National Unity Party where Tubillara is also affiliated, also took their oath of office before Lacson.
Lacson is the party mate of Delfinado at the Nationalist People’s Coalition.
Tubilllara justified his oathtaking before Lacson, being the highest elected official in Negros Occidental, although he belongs to the NUP, where Vice Gov. Jeffrey Ferrer is the ranking provincial party official.
He said that Vice Gov. Ferrer belongs to the legislative branch of the provincial government, which is not allowed to do so.
Tubillara, who is now on his sixth term as mayor of San Enrique, maintained that the results of election through Vote Counting Machines is 99.9 percent accurate.
In more than 15 years of serving as mayor of San Enrique, Tubillara said election protests did not prosper ever since.
Tubillara’s running mate, incumbent Vice Mayor Meschille Balenario, however lost to Carlo Magno, the running mate of Delfinado.
Four of the eight winning councilors are affiliated with the group of Delfinado.
Asked if this will create a problem in the Sangguniang Bayan, which will be presided over by a non-party mate, Tubillara said he has still the support of the Sangguniang Kabataan and Association of the Barangay Captains, whose heads sit as ex-officio members of the municipal council.
I don’t think that for good governance, they will not cooperate. I believe that they will also cooperate, he added.*
