Cebu City mayoral bet Rama files election protest, seeks manual recount
Cebu City mayoral candidate and former mayor Michael “Mike” Rama on Thursday, May 22, files an election protest before the Commission on Elections. (Photo by Dianne Sampang/INQUIRER.net)
MANILA, Philippines — Cebu City mayoral candidate and former mayor Michael “Mike” Rama on Thursday filed an election protest before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) against his rivals, citing alleged election anomalies and called for a manual recount of votes.
Rama ranked third in the mayoral race with a total of 120,124 votes, based on the final and official results. His rivals Nestor Archival and Raymond Garcia obtained 256,197 votes and 176,967 votes, respectively.
Rama said that he filed the protest due to glitches and defects of automated counting machines used in the elections.
He added that upon visiting 31 barangays after the elections, 15 of them “have [a] story to tell about the defective machines.”
“You can’t just concede,” Rama told reporters in an interview.
READ: Mike Rama refuses to concede Cebu City mayoral defeat
When asked if the protest will be difficult for Rama since he ranks third in the mayoral race, he said that they will have to see the real results of the elections.
“Nothing is wrong if you file it. Nothing. Because if the truth is revealed and that machine, we have to open that machine.”
He also lamented the optics of the supporters who showed up and the campaign activities they did during the campaign period.
The Office of the Ombudsman previously dismissed Rama from his mayoral post and included a penalty of perpetual disqualification from holding public office.
The Supreme Court, however, stopped the Comelec from disqualifying Rama from running for public office.
Meanwhile, the Comelec also received more election protests on Thursday, including the one filed by San Fernando City, Pampanga mayoral candidate Mylyn Pineda-Cayabyab.
