Pam asks Comelec to drop Gwen’s poll protest

Local

CEBU Governor-elect Pamela Baricuatro has called on the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to dismiss the election protest filed by outgoing Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, describing it as lacking in form and substance.

In a verified answer submitted on June 16, Baricuatro’s legal team argued that Garcia’s protest failed to meet the basic requirements for judicial review, as it did not contain detailed allegations or credible evidence.

Garcia, who lost the May 2025 gubernatorial race by a margin of 342,873 votes, had questioned the election results covering all 4,120 clustered precincts in Cebu.

Baricuatro secured 1,107,924 votes, while Garcia received 765,051, based on the official Certificate of Canvass signed by the Provincial Board of Canvassers on May 13, 2025.

Baricuatro’s camp asserted that Garcia’s complaint relied on sweeping and self-serving statements rather than specific and verifiable claims.

They maintained that the protest lacked any detailed specification of acts or omissions that would show irregularities, electoral fraud, or anomalies in the questioned precincts.

They added that the protest was anchored on general allegations and failed to identify which specific precincts allegedly experienced anomalies.

According to Baricuatro’s legal team, Garcia did not even indicate the number of votes she aimed to recover per precinct or the basis for such a recovery.

The protest cited issues such as malfunctioning automated counting machines (ACMs), unusually high undervotes and overvotes, and data improbabilities.

However, Baricuatro’s team countered that these occurrences were not unique to Cebu and were insufficient to establish any fraudulent activity.

They described the cited machine issues as minor, including paper jams, explainable rejections, maintenance cleaning, and isolated technical delays.

Baricuatro’s camp also dismissed Garcia’s reliance on 40 affidavits, most of which were executed in support of a separate protest by Mandaue City mayoralty candidate Jonas Cortes.

Her lawyers said these affidavits lacked evidentiary value and were irrelevant to the gubernatorial protest. Of the 40, only four affidavits were even remotely related to Garcia’s case, and even these did not raise substantial or relevant claims.

They argued that none of the affidavits made any serious or material allegation that would reasonably cast doubt on the integrity or outcome of the elections.

The protest, they said, failed to state any actionable cause or identify acts committed by Baricuatro that violated Garcia’s rights as a candidate.

Baricuatro’s team further pointed out that Garcia did not raise any objections during the election day or the canvassing on May 13, and as such, was now stopped from challenging the results.

They also raised a jurisdictional issue, noting that Garcia failed to include indispensable parties in the case, such as the Electoral Boards (EBs), the Municipal Board of Canvassers (MBOC), and the Provincial Board of Canvassers (PBOC), who were responsible for the conduct and canvassing of the elections.

Garcia filed her protest before the Comelec Electoral Contests Adjudication Department on June 3, 2025.

Garcia alleged that the results did not reflect the honest will of the people and cited what she claimed was “technical and software-proven evidence” of fraud.

She also alleged that votes meant for her were credited to her opponent.

Comelec served the summons to Baricuatro on June 10, setting a five-day deadline for her response.

Baricuatro’s team submitted their answer on June 16, the next working day, as the fifth day fell on a Sunday.(MyTVCebu)