Manila 1st District Rep. Manuel Luis Lopez
MANILA – The House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) has upheld the landslide victory of Manila 1st District Rep. Manuel Luis Lopez in the May 2019 elections.
In a resolution on HRET Case No. 19-006 (EP) dated August 27 but released to the media on Thursday, the nine-member tribunal dismissed the electoral protest filed against Lopez by losing candidate Benjamin “Atong” Asilo for being insufficient in form and substance.
The HRET said it was “clear that protestant (Asilo) filed the instant protest on a mere gut feel or suspicion that the election results do not reflect the will of the electorate of the First District of Manila.”
It noted that Asilo failed to specify the acts or omissions complained of constituting the electoral frauds, anomalies, and irregularities in the protested clustered precincts.
It said Asilo’s act of doing away with the testimonies of his 112 intended witnesses shows that his causes of action are not lodged in election frauds but on the alleged “shocking discrepancy” between the number of votes.
Lopez secured 86,993 votes in last year’s elections, or 13,687 votes more compared to Asilo’s 73,306.
The tribunal said it does not accept a mere allegation of the existence of a “questionable mathematical disparity of votes”, which are devoid of substance and would not qualify as specific acts or omissions constituting electoral fraud, anomalies or irregularities.
Lopez welcomed HRET’s decision, saying the poll protest was filed on mere suspicion, devoid of factual basis, and aimed at harassment.
“This re-election is not for me but for the thousands of Manileños who have given me the mandate to represent their voices in the halls of Congress,” Lopez said in a statement on Thursday. “Since the beginning, we are confident that the will of the people and the choice of my constituents will emerge victorious against this obvious political maneuver.”
Lopez said the protestant himself admitted that local pre-election surveys projected his win and that the contention was based on his disbelief that he lost ‘not by hundreds but by thousands of votes’.
Supreme Court Associate Justice Marvic Leonen chairs the tribunal composed of three Supreme Court justices and six members of the House. (PNA)
