Gwen still leads Yapha in recount

CEBU Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia continues to hold the lead over former Pinamungahan Mayor Geraldine Yapha following the revision and recount of 25 percent of the total number of ballots in the third congressional district.

About 25 percent of the ballots in 109 out of 434 precincts in the third district which included the unaccounted 41,858 stray ballots.
Yapha said Garcia’s vote count went up by 400 while 150 votes were added to hers.

The House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) which handled the recount and revision process, however, has yet to issue a final tally, said Yapha.
Cebu Daily News tried but was unable to reach Garcia for comment yesterday.

A former Cebu governor, Garcia ran under her family’s One Cebu party. She won by a slim margin of 1,984 after she garnered 105,424 votes against Yapha, a former mayor of Pinamungahan town in midwest Cebu.

After the partial recount, officials of the electoral tribunal headed by Associate Supreme Court Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr. will convene and issue an order on whether or not to push through with the recount.

The tribunal can also stop the recount since it has not found sufficient merits to support Yapha’s claims.

Yapha said she hopes that the HRET will continue the recount since there are 12,000 ballots that are contested by both parties.

“I will respect the decision of the electoral tribunal whatever it may be but I hope that they will find enough merit to proceed to the recounting of hundred percent of the ballots,” Yapha said in an interview yesterday.

Yapha, who ran under the Liberal Party, filed an election protest against One Cebu’s Garcia last July questioning the 41,858 stray ballots in the third district.

The HRET started the recount last January after their representatives recovered all the ballots in the third district and flew it to Manila.