Peña supporters raise P130K for poll protest

SUPPORTERS of Makati Mayor Romulo “Kid” Peña have so far raised over P130,000 to fund his electoral protest against Rep. Mar-Len Abigail “Abby” Binay who defeated him in the mayoralty contest.

On Tuesday, Peña’s supporters counted the money that had been dropped into 13 large water containers over the past weeks. Peña started his “Piso Para sa Pagbabago Para sa Manual Recount” fundraising a week after the May 9 elections. He filed his petition for a manual recount in Commission on Elections (Comelec) main office on May 20.

“I think we need around P8 million but we already gave an initial P500 as bond when we filed the petition with the Comelec,” Peña told members of the media yesterday.

Although the donations collected so far fall short of the amount he needed to raise, the mayor said he was grateful to those who have helped him, noting that they all share the common goal of fighting for the truth.

The first batch of donations from six of the city’s 33 barangays totaled P139,510 in addition to the checks for about P350,000 sent by anonymous donors. “Others have also pledged some amount to help us with the manual recount petition,” he added.

His camp earlier claimed that around 36,000 votes for Peña were counted in Binay’s favor during the canvassing of votes.

The final Comelec tally showed that Binay won by 17,805 votes over Peña as she garnered 160,120 votes against his 142,315 votes.

Binay’s camp has denied all the allegations thrown by Peña and his supporters, saying that they had no means to cheat since the incumbent mayor was the one in power.