MANILA, Philippines -- Mayor Alfredo Lim is the real winner in the May, 2010 mayoral race in Manila.

This was confirmed by the final recount conducted by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) following the electoral protest lodged by his political rival, former Environment Secretary Lito Atienza.

The Comelec concluded last Friday the recount for the 2010 mayoral race in Manila and declared Lim as the true winner in last year's poll, according Manila chief of staff and media bureau chief Ric de Guzman.

“It was shown that the automated election results conformed with the results of the manual count done by the Commission on Elections. Let this be a test case for all other similar protests. It is not true that the automated count is different from the manual,” De Guzman said.

The manual recount results showed Lim won by a landslide in all six districts, with leads ranging from 6,000 to 11,000 votes, De Guzman said. He said they were expecting the Comelec to issue a ruling on the matter soon.

If the basis were the ballots from the total number of clustered precincts reported, Lim got 65,375 votes while Atienza got 20,340. The remaining 12,427 votes were spread over to the other candidates.

In terms of percentage, De Guzman said 66.61 percent of the ballots recounted went to Lim while Atienza got 20.73 percent, slightly higher than the 12.66 percent that went to other candidates.

“Finally, this issue can be put to rest. The pendency of the case has long been used as a basis for peddling lies via press releases,” De Guzman said.

“Lumalabas na accurate pala ang bilang na ginawa ng makina as the automated results tallied or conformed with the results of the manual count done by the Comelec. They are the same. Let this be a test case for all other similar protests. Hindi totoo na iba ang resulta ng automated counting sa manual,” he added.

Lim’s camp expects the Comelec to issue its final ruling on the matter anytime soon.

Sought for his comment, Atienza refuses to back down from the fight. He insists they have evidence to prove there were irregularities in the ballots, and even the manual recount tallies.

“As far as we’re concerned, [the recount] isn’t over. We are not conceding anything because what we saw were tampered ballots,” he said, in a phone interview. “We have filed a petition for the continuation of the opening of the next 200 ballot boxes,” he said.

The recount so far had only covered 200 pilot precincts designated by the Comelec, to represent a total of 1,411 poll precincts in the city. Atienza is now asking the Comelec to conduct a recount for all the precincts.

The alleged irregularities included fictitious signatures, folded ballots, ballot boxes not being intact, he said. “We believe the results were already encoded [before the elections], and the ballots were tampered with to conform with the results.”

“Anyway, [Comelec has] requested us to deposit money for the recount of 1,411 precincts. The expenses are already covered, so why not continue with the recount to satisfy the doubts being raised?” he said.

Atienza expressed hopes the Comelec will see the merit of his petition to continue the recount. If discrepancies are found in the future, his camp will file a petition to nullify the election, Atienza said.