Cebu City ballots shipped to Manila for recount

BALLOT boxes from 238 precincts in Cebu City were shipped yesterday to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) office in Manila for a vote recount of last May’s mayoral elections.

The recount came after the Comelec denied a petition filed by lawyers of Rama and Vice Mayor Edgar Labella to dismiss the election protest filed against them by former congressman Tomas Osmeña and former vice mayor Joy Augustus Young.

Osmeña’s lawyer Kirk Bryan Repollo said the Comelec ordered a recount of 20 percent of the votes of 592 precincts in the city.

“The other ballots will follow later if the Comelec finds that there is substantial grounds to proceed with the rest,” he told Cebu Daily News.

Osmeña and Young filed separate election protests.

Osmeña lost by 6,000 votes to Rama while Young lost by 184 votes to Labella in the May 13 election.

“I’m not bothered. Why would I be bothered. If they find that something is wrong with the ballots then something is wrong with the election. What is there for me to be afraid of? The other side is making up stories,” Rama said.

Of the precincts randomly picked by Comelec, ballots from the first 119 precincts will be used for the recount in Osmeña’s election case against Rama.

The ballots from the remaining 119 precincts will be used in the protest against Labella.

During his noon time press conference, Rama ordered an office staff to contact a priest so the ballots for shipment could be blessed.

Rama went to pier 4 where the MV Pope John Paul II of 2Go vessel was docked to witness the blessing by Fr. Arvel Cipat of the three container vans loaded with Cebu City ballots. Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac