House body summons questioned votes in Cebu City poll protest

CEBU CITY — The battle for the city’s south district between Rep. Antonio Cuenco and Aristotle Batuhan, the man he beat for the congressional post last May, is not over but has entered a new phase.

The House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) sent authorized representatives the other day to fetch contested ballot boxes and election documents in cognizance of the electoral protest which Batuhan and Cuenco have filed against each other.

Both have claimed that massive cheating marred the polls.

Batuhan lost by a mere 2,601 votes, garnering 50,742 against Cuenco’s 53,343.

In a revised order issued last Nov. 22, Supreme Court Associate Justice Jose Melo, the electoral tribunal’s chairman, directed the HRET secretary to take immediate steps to collect the contested election paraphernalia.

Batuhan is contesting the results from 664 precincts while Cuenco is questioning the results from 321 precincts.

Cuenco originally contested the results from 1,040 precincts but either withdrew or abandoned his protest in 719 precincts.

The contested precincts are spread over 14 barangays: Guadalupe, Basak San Nicolas, Basak Mambaling, Labangon, Punta Princesa, Tisa, Sudlon I, Quiot Pardo, Abuno Pasil, Duljo-Fatima, San Nicolas Central, Inayawan, Poblacion Pardo and Bulacao Pardo. — Freeman News Service