Gwen’s protest questioning Pam’s victory junked

Local

AN ATTEMPT to overturn the results of this year’s gubernatorial election in Cebu has been dismissed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) First Division.

The decision came more than five months after Gov. Pamela Baricuatro formally assumed office.

Former Governor Gwendolyn Garcia filed an election protest against Baricuatro following the May 12, 2025 National and Local Elections.

The protest cited alleged electronic fraud, vote padding, malfunctioning automated counting machines, and unusually high undervotes and overvotes.

Baricuatro had been proclaimed the winner with a lead of 342,873 votes and officially assumed the governorship last June 30.

In its ruling dated November 24, the Comelec First Division found the protest insufficient in form and content.

The Commission noted that Garcia’s filing did not specify how, when, or where the alleged irregularities occurred.

The protest also failed to identify which precincts were affected or explain how the alleged anomalies could have changed the outcome of the election.

The Commission further clarified that undervotes and overvotes do not automatically indicate fraud.

Undervotes occur when voters choose not to select a candidate for a particular position, while overvotes happen when voters exceed the number of votes allowed.

Even if all contested votes were credited to Garcia, they would not have been enough to overcome Baricuatro’s margin of victory.

The Comelec also highlighted the lack of supporting evidence in the protest.

Of the 4,120 contested clustered precincts referenced by Garcia, only a few affidavits were submitted from Tudela, Talisay, Minglanilla, and San Fernando.

The majority of Cebu’s 46 cities and municipalities had no supporting affidavits or documentation.

The Commission concluded that generalized allegations without specific evidence fail to meet the standards required for election protests under Comelec rules.

Before the dismissal, Garcia had maintained that technical and software issues during the election may have altered the results.

Her protest cited irregularities across clustered precincts and alleged that votes meant for her were credited to Baricuatro.

She also pointed to unusually high numbers of undervotes and overvotes in certain precincts, noting, for example, 163,796 undervotes and 18,415 overvotes for the gubernatorial position across the province.

Garcia’s protest also claimed that residents in far-flung barangays expressed disbelief at the election outcome, questioning why a candidate unknown to them won by such a large margin.

Baricuatro, a first-time candidate and former flight attendant, leads the province under the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino banner.(MyTVCebu)