Tom O remains confident of victory during recount

OSMEÑA

CEBU City Mayor Tomas Osmeña said he remains confident he will still emerge victorious even if there will be a recount of the votes cast for him and defeated mayoral candidate Michael Rama.

He even challenged Rama’s camp to include the clustered precincts where Rama, Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella and defeated north district congressional candidate Alvin Garcia voted in the 167 pilot protested precincts that is set to be recounted by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Second Division.

In all these clustered precincts, Osmeña won over Rama.

“I challenge Mr. Rama, include your precinct where you lost. He lost almost two-to-one in his precinct. How did I cheat him in his own precinct? I must be that good in cheating,” he said during his press conference yesterday morning.

Osmeña also won in Labella’s clustered precinct in Barangay Mabolo.

The mayor also claimed that he won in all the clustered precincts in Barangay Kamputhaw, where Garcia and his son, now Cebu City Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia, come from and are voters of.

Rama lost to Osmeña by more than 34,000 during the May elections.

The Comelec Second Division issued an order finding Rama’s election protest and Osmeña counterprotest to be “sufficien t in form and content.” The order was received by Rama’s lawyers last week while Osmeña’s lawyers in Manila received it earlier last month.

The order would entail the delivery of the votes coming from 20 percent of the 837 clustered precincts to the Comelec Second Division in Manila.

Rama’s lawyers have been identifying the 167 clustered precincts that they would submit for a pilot recount.

Councilor Jocelyn “Joy” Pesquera, one of lawyers representing Rama in the protest, said that the latest Comelec order has bolstered their case.