BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya — A recount of votes at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has affirmed the election victory of former vice governor Luisa Lloren-Cuaresma as governor of this province in the May 11 elections.
The Comelec’s revision committee, provincial legal consultant Epifanio Galima said, found that the first-term lady governor even gained additional votes over her closest rival, former board member Leonardo Perez Jr., in the recent revision held in the Comelec central office in Manila.
“Based on the results of the revisions, the governor even increased his lead over former board member Perez from more than 2,000 to more than 4,000 votes,” Galima said as he dispelled rumors that Cuaresma could be unseated anytime after she lost in the recount.
Earlier, Cuaresma denounced “lies” over her alleged loss in the Comelec recount.
“Due to the election protest filed against me with the Comelec, somebody else would be taking over the (helm of the) province. This is farther from the truth. I am still the governor,” she said.
However, Galima, who is also Cuaresma’s designated spokesman on the election case, said that the poll body’s revision committee has yet to issue a report on the revision to the Comelec’s first division which is handling the Cuaresma Perez election protest.
In the complete but unofficial results of the revision, Galima said, Cuaresma has even gained more than 1,000 votes, increasing her earlier lead of more than 2,000.
Galima said, however, that the revision results have yet to be reviewed, validated and affirmed before an official ruling is issued by the first division.
He said this might take a year to do it considering the further protest and counter-protest that may be lodged by the warring camps.
“In the meantime Governor Cuaresma will continue to assume the post because she was declared the winner in the last elections, pending the issuance of the final and official ruling of the Comelec en banc,” he said.
The Comelec recount for the gubernatorial post here arose from the electoral protest filed by Perez Jr., who claimed he had been cheated of victory.
Perez Jr., who ran under the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino-Nationalist People’s Coalition, sought a recount of votes from 308 polling precincts, including those in Bambang where Cuaresma served as mayor for three terms before she became vice governor for two terms.
The young Perez claimed that the total number of votes garnered by the gubernatorial candidates exceeded the total number of voters who cast their votes in a precinct. Perez claimed that he would win by more than 1,000 votes had the votes been properly counted.
