Election protests vs 2 governors, mayor junked

MANILA, Philippines —  The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has dismissed three electoral protests filed against the governors of Cebu and Catanduanes as well as the mayor of Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental.

The Comelec First Division dismissed for being “insufficient in form and content” the poll protest filed by Gwendolyn Garcia against Cebu Gov. Pamela Baricuatro.

Garcia, former governor of Cebu, lost her reelection bid in the May elections.

The Comelec said that Garcia’s allegations such as repeated ACM rejections, paper jams and defective markers were considered technical incidents covered by contingency procedures and not grounds for protest.

The poll body also dismissed the election case filed by Peter Cua against Catanduanes Gov. Patrick Alain Azanza for being “moot and academic.”

It said Cua had been disqualified in the gubernatorial race in the May elections.

“This en banc resolution is final and executory. With the disqualification, Cua lost his legal standing in the case,” Comelec officials said.

Meanwhile, the Comelec dismissed the election protest filed by Felipe Claudio Remollo against Dumaguete City Mayor Manuel Sagarbarria.

Comelec officials said Remollo  failed to comply with the mandatory form and content required in filing an election protest.

“The petitioner failed to indicate the total number of precincts, the protested precincts and the votes of the parties as well as the details of the acts or omissions showing electoral frauds in protested precincts,” the First Division said in rejecting Remolllo’s complaint.

Discrepancies between (the numbers of ) registered voters and ballots cast were previously addressed by the poll body as resulting from a “mislabeled” or “uncleaned” data, the Comelec said.