Kabalikat auditor bet completes new set of faculty union officers

The new set of UST Faculty Union (USTFU) officers has been completed, after senior high teacher Ma. Luisa Reyes won the tiebreaker election for auditorship.

Reyes, Kabalikat Party’s bet, won against Sulong USTFU’s Leonid Lintag in the special election for auditorship held on Feb. 25.

The poll was conducted after both candidates received 421 votes in the first USTFU elections held from Feb. 15 to 17.

Reyes won the tiebreaker with 412 votes, beating Lintag’s 379.

The USTFU Commission on Elections (Comelec) botched its initial announcement and proclaimed Lintag as the new union auditor but later issued a clarification declaring Reyes as the rightful winner.

“Please be informed that candidate Ma. Luisa R. Reyes garnered the highest number of votes with 412 votes and candidate Leonid C. Lintag garnered the second highest of 379 votes. We, the Comelec, sincerely apologize for the typographical error committed earlier where we inadvertently interchanged the results for the two candidates,” it said.

Lintag, in a Facebook post, conceded defeat but not without calling out the USTFU Comelec for its erroneous announcement.

“Binabati ko si Ms. Witty Reyes ng Senior High School sa kanyang pagkapanalo bilang bagong Auditor ng USTFU. Sana po ay magampanan niya nang tapat at tama ang kanyang bagong responsibilidad; nawa’y pagpalain siya at ang lahat ng nanalo sa eleksyong ito ng Maykapal,” he said in his post.

“Habang ako ay nagbibigay daan na sa pagkahalal ni Ms. Reyes, kailangan pa din ipaliwanag ng Comelec ang nangyaring kalituhan sa paglabas ng resulta ng halalan. Ito ay mahalaga upang maalis ang mga agam-agam ng mga miyembro at malaman nila na walang anomalya ang nangyari sa pagbibilang ng mga boto. Sana hindi na mangyari muli ang ganitong klaseng kamalian.”

Kabalikat party members now occupy 10 executive positions and six spots in the board of directors of USTFU.

Reyes, along with all the newly elected officials, will serve five-year terms.

EDITOR’S NOTE: THE FIRST VERSION OF THIS STORY CONTAINED AN INACCURATE PREVIEW PHOTO. IT WAS UPDATED ON FEB. 26, 7:59 P.M.