Soco asks Comelec to reverse dismissal

BUSINESSMAN Glenn Anthony Soco filed a motion for reconsideration to the dismissal of his election protest before the Commission on Elections.

The Comelec dismissed Soco’s electoral protest against the late Cebu vice governor Gregorio Sanchez Jr. due to lack of merit.

Soco earlier vowed to fight his protest against the victory of the late Vice Gov. Gregorio Sanchez Jr. until the end.

Soco’s legal counsel, Atty. George Erwin Garcia said the Comelec “should not limit their decisions on the results of the election returns since these were all computer-generated and hence prone to technical glitches.”

The recount showed Sanchez garnering 543,924 votes against Soco getting 517,687 votes.

Soco said the Comelec Second Division, instead of revisiting all the ballots, chose to rely on the statistical results of a small percentage of the ballot recount in determining the legitimacy of his protest.

Even after revisiting 20 percent of the total ballots of the clustered precincts per Soco’s request, the Comelec in its ruling said he would only get a maximum 9,148 votes, a number insufficient to overcome Sanchez’s 17,089 vote margin.

Soco contended that some ballots have “identifying marks” and are invalid since it does not contain the signatures of the Board of Election Inspector. Some ballots also were not shaded properly as required by the rules.

The businessman referred to Section 195 of the Election Code which states that ballots which have any distinguishing marks or bear irrelevant expressions, impertinent figures, words and phrases.

In his motion for reconsideration, Soco said the Comelec should proceed to completing the recount of the remaining unprotested precincts in order to prove his victory over Sanchez.

In an interview last week, the businessman said he is willing to push the case up to the Supreme Court if needed because he wants to uphold the “electorate’s sovereignty.” /Correspondent Peter L. Romanillos