Vico Sotto asks Comelec to dismiss Eusebio’s election protest. Pasig City mayor-elect Vico Sotto has asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to dismiss the election protest filed against him by outgoing Mayor Bobby Eusebio, his rival in the May 13 midterm polls.
In a 31-page Answer to the protest filed by his lawyers, led by election lawyer Romulo Macalintal, Sotto said that Eusebio’s protest was “insufficient in form and content since it does not make a detailed specification of the acts or omissions complained of as required under Comelec Resolution No. 8804 in filing an election protest.”
He cited several cases decided by the Supreme Court and the Comelec where election protests were dismissed when the allegations were “too broad and general and no evidence to support these claims other than the mere affidavits of the loser’s supporters.”
“The affidavits of Eusebio’s witnesses on allegations of malfunctions of vote counting machines and defective SD cards, were obviously generated from a singular template only reworded and rephrased with font deliberately made varied, which are clearly insufficient to prove the existence of election fraud and irregularity in Pasig City”, Sotto said in his Answer.
Citing the 2013 case of Aguillo vs Comelec, Sotto said that “An election protest is allowed to ascertain, not suppress, the true will of the electorate. It is not meant to save face, to keep pride for the loser. An election protest which is not only divisive but also disruptive of the affairs of a political unit cannot and should never be allowed to proceed on mere belief and suspicion of a losing candidate.”
As to Eusebio’s complaint that some 29 clustered precincts were “missing in the Statement of Votes (SOV)”, Sotto claimed that it was just a “printing error” as Eusebio could always request for a complete copy from the Election Officer of Pasig City.
“But even assuming for the sake of argument that all the votes from the 29 clustered precincts were indeed missing and 100% of the votes therein were for Eusebio, this would only amount to 20,800 votes (placed at the national average of 270 voters per precinct) and would still not be enough to subdue my overwhelming 86,500 vote-lead”, Sotto said.
The mayor-elect then urged the poll body to dismiss the case, arguing that while it was the duty of the poll body to hear complaints of losing candidates, it was also its equal duty to protect legitimate and duly proclaimed election winners.
“An election protest is allowed to ascertain, not suppress, the true will of the electorate. It is not meant to save face, to keep pride for the loser. An election protest, which is not only divisive but also disruptive of the affairs of a political unit, cannot and should never be allowed to proceed on mere belief and suspicion of a losing candidate,” said Sotto.
Sotto won by an overwhelming 86,500 vote-lead over Eusebio which was considered as unprecedented in the political history of Pasig City.
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