By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

After EB Magalona mayoral candidate, Negros Occidental Provincial Board Member David Lacson; vice mayoral candidate Hope Marey Depasucat; alongside Town Councilors Anton Magalona and Rommel Mogul, who were both seeking reelection, filed electoral protests last month before the Regional Trial Court in Silay City, EB Magalona Mayor Marvin Malacon said the electoral protests filed against him and his partymates “will not prosper.”
While Malacon won by 20,093 votes to 10,270 for Lacson, along with Eric Matulac winning vice mayor by 16,239 votes to Depasucat’s 13,037, the protesting candidates staked their claims on defective SD cards.
Meanwhile, Malacon’s Asenso Tumandok swept the local elections, with Magalona finishing tenth in the council’s race and Mogul coming in ninth.
Lacson is the fourth mayoral candidate in Negros Occidental to file an election protest following Magdaleno Peña of Moises Padilla, Joselito Malabor of Isabela, and Felix Feria IV of La Castellana.
According to outgoing Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon, Jr., filing an election protests is “an exercise in futility.”/DGB, WDJ