By Charissa Luci-Atienza

Outgoing Northern Samar Rep. Raul Daza expressed gratitude Sunday to the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) for recently dismissing the electoral protest filed against him and affirming his victory in the 2016 congressional poll.

The nine-man HRET, in a unanimous decision promulgated on May 23, and released last June 7, dismissed the electoral protest filed by former congressman Harlin Abayon against him.

“The instant election protest is dismissed for lack of merit and the proclamation of protestee Raul A. Daza as the duly elected Representative of the First Legislative District of Northern Samar in the May 2016 national and local elections is affirmed, ” according to the 84-page decision, penned by Supreme Court Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta, chairperson of the HRET.

Daza, who belongs to the Liberal Party, noted that in its 84-page decision, the HRET affirmed his victory by 47 votes, with him getting 80,157 votes against Abayon 80,110.

“The figures confirm protestee’s victory in the May 2016 national and local elections for the position of Member of the House of Representatives for the First Legislative District of Northern Samar with a winning lead of 47 votes over protestant after the revision and appreciation of ballots,” the HRET decision said.

Daza thanked the HRET for resolving the electoral protest case before his term ends on June 30, 2019.

“I’m glad that the shadow cast by the protest over my 2016 victory has finally vanished,” he said in a statement, even as he also thanked his counsel, lawyers Napoleon Galit and Ma. Bernadette Sardillo.

The HRET denied Abayon’s petition to annul the electoral results in 13 clustered precincts included in his protest for lack of basis.

The decision was arrived at after the HRET’s physical revision and count of the ballots cast in 58 clustered precincts Abayon protested and 47 Daza counter-protested.

Daza, who did not run for reelection in the last May 13 national and local elections, even noted that the HRET evaluated the shadings by the voters of the pre-printed circles in the official ballots for the two candidates.

Daza served a total of about 22 years in seven Congresses since 1969 when he was first elected to the 7th Congress.

In the current 17th Congress, Daza is the sole House member who was in the service before martial law declaration in 1972.

His son, Northern Samar Representative-elect Paul Daza, who served the 14th Congress, will replace him.

Sitting at the HRET are Supreme Court Justices Estela Perlas-Bernabe and Francis Jardeleza and six House members elected by the House based on the proportional representation from the political parties.

As mandated by the Constitution, the HRET serves as “the sole judge of all contests relating to the election, returns, and qualifications of [its] Members.”