Results of North Cotabato gov race probed

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has started investigating the results of last year’s gubernatorial race in North Cotabato on the behest of defeated candidate Emmanuel Piñol.

Piñol, then the governor of the province, lost to incumbent Gov. Lala Taliño-Mendoza.

Comelec Commissioner Rene Sar­miento has ordered the transport to the Comelec central office in Manila of 52 of 260 ballot boxes in question as initial action in response to Piñol’s petition for an extensive examination of the election materials that the boxes contained. 

Piñol said 52 of the 260 ballot boxes from the towns of Pikit, Kabacan, President Roxas and Carmen will be shipped to Manila on Saturday. 

In his protest, Piñol said he got zero votes in the final tally in the four municipalities despite having thousands of supporters in the adjoining areas. 

Piñol said he sought the intervention of the Comelec central office on the issue after provincial election officer Duque Kadatuan dismissed his protest on the results of the gubernatorial race in the four towns.

Kadatuan proclaimed Mendoza shortly after last year’s May 10 polls for having a 37,634-vote lead over Piñol.  

Piñol said the votes that made Mendoza win were those from the four towns. 

He said he is optimistic that the Comelec central office could determine who indeed won in the gubernatorial race.

“The records will not lie and the truth will come out. These are incontrovertible evidence,” he said.  

“Experts say that we could not erase the records from the computers, the very same machines that were used in cheating me would be used to expose the irregularities during the elections,” Piñol said.