Comelec to Quiboloy: Want a manual recount? File protest first

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Kingdom of Jesus Christ leader Apollo Quiboloy. (Noy Morcoso/INQUIRER.net)

MANILA, Philippines — Parties who are calling for a manual recount should first file an election protest, the Commision on Elections (Comelec) said on Wednesday.

Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco made the remark after Kingdom of Jesus Christ founder Apollo Quiboloy called for a manual recount on Tuesday.

“Our advice to the parties who want to question [the results], you file an election protest,” Laudiangco said in a press conference in Manila Hotel’s Tent City in Manila.

In another press briefing at the same venue, Comelec chairman George Erwin Garcia said the filing of an election protest is the easier option and the conduct of manual recount is cumbersome.

He explained that manual recount will require another law mandating such a proceeding.

Garcia also noted that the conduct of a manual recount will incur costs to the government.

“We need a budget for manual recount because who will recount? The teachers? We need to give them another honoraria,” he said.

The Comelec chief also pointed out that the poll body is already conducting a manual random audit, which refers to the manual counting of random ballots.

Quiboloy ranked 31st in the senatorial race, getting 5,578,304 votes, according to Comelec’s partial and unofficial count as of 11:29 a.m.

This figure is based on 97.3 percent of all election returns./apl/abc