PETITION. Pangasinan election supervisor, lawyer Ericson Oganiza, during an interview with the media. Oganiza confirmed that their office received a petition for manual recount for the ballots from the recent elections. (Photo courtesy of Jerick James Pasiliao)
DAGUPAN CITY – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) provincial office in Pangasinan has received a petition for a manual recount of the ballots from the recent elections.
In an interview on Wednesday, Comelec Pangasinan provincial election supervisor lawyer Ericson Oganiza said there is a need for a formal election protest for revision of ballots filed before the Comelec for the manual recount to happen.
“Hindi pwede (manual recount), magfile muna election protest sinabi ko sa kanya (sa abogado) na hindi ganoon procedure. Nasa regional office na, nireceive lang namin (Manual recount cannot happen, they have to file election protest, I told the lawyer about the procedure. It is now in the regional office, we just received it),” he said.
Oganiza said the protest should be filed at the Regional Trial Court for the municipal level, and at the Comelec main office for the city and provincial level.
“They submitted the petition with signatures but I wasn’t able to check how many signatures there were and we forwarded it to the regional office,” he added.
Oganiza said as of writing, there were no reported formal electoral protests for the revision of ballots in Pangasinan.
Recently, there was a rally in front of the provincial capitol questioning the results of the elections.
Prior to this incident, the Abante Ilocano Pangasinan (API) Party-list whose founder is former Governor and Representative Amado Espino Jr. held a press conference on the alleged irregularities in the May 9 polls.
API Party-list Secretary-General lawyer Nelson Gayo said they are yet to decide as a party on their next step of action on the alleged election “cheating”.
“We are gathering evidence and sworn statements. This election process is far from over,” he said. (PNA)
