Osmeña stops Comelec recount of 2013 votes but still pursues election fraud case against Mayor Rama
Tomas Osmena. (CDN FILE PHOTO)
Former mayor Tomas Osmeña has withdrawn his request for the Comission on Elections to recount contested votes during the 2013 mayoralty race in Cebu City.
With less than a year to go to the next election, he said it was more “sensible” to discontinue his battle to recount 473 remaining contested precincts.
However, his complaint against Mayor Michael Rama for alleged election fraud in precincts in barangay Basak San Nicolas remains.
“I didn’t withdraw the case. I only withdrew the counting of the 80 percent (of the contested precincts),” Osmena said in an interview.
“I still have a valid complaint on the nullification of Basak San Nicolas. Nullification because of fraud. No need to count, just nullify it,” he added.
Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama won against Osmeña in 2013 and was reelected to a second term with a margin of 6,376 votes.
Rama welcomed his rival’s partial withdrawal in the election protest.
“They knew from the very beginning that there’s no case,” he said.
“They’ve been trying to convince people in the City of Cebu that months after they filed the case, they can assume office. Two years have passed, and they’re still imagining they can come in and assume the mayorship and vice mayorship,” Rama added.
Osmena palns to challenge Rama again next year for the mayorship.
Rama is seeking a third and last term as mayor.
There will be no more recount of the votes cast in 473 contested precincts. The Comelec already completed recount proceedings in 119 precincts.
Comelec Commissioner Christian Robert Lim, presiding officer of the first division, approved Osmeña’s motion on July 9.
He also ordered the release of Osmeña’s cash deposit of P1.112 million, less 20 percent or P278,213.50 to defray expenses for the return of the ballot boxes to the Cebu city treasurer
A similar motion for withdrawal filed by Osmeña’s running mate in 2013, former vice mayor Joy Augustus Young, was also approved.
Young’s cash deposit of P1.115 million, less P278, 572.20, was also returned.
Young lost by only 184 votes to Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella.
In his complaint filed with the Comelec shortly after the 2013 elections, Osmeña said fraud was committed in 592 polling precincts.
He also asked for the nullification of votes in barangay Basak San Nicolas, a stronghold of Team Rama.
If the votes there are nullified, there is a possibility that Osmena would end up getting more votes than Rama.
Mayor Rama, in a phone interview, asked why his opponents question the integrity of the PCOS (precinct-count optical scanner) machines, which he said were already tested and proven to be 99.9 percent accurate.
“That’s why I did not see any possibility that the case be decided in their favor. From the very beginning, it was a miscase. It is a figment of one’s imagination,” he said.
In his motion to withdraw protested remaining protested precincts, Osmeña said there was little time to complete the recount.
“It won’t be finished even years from now. Maybe in the next elections,” he said.
In his motion for withdrawal filed by legal counsel Marites Holsapple, Osmeña said it was “appropriate and sensible to withdraw and discontinue the remaining 473 contested and protested precincts for purposes of recount proceedings.”
Withdrawing his bid for a recount would allow Osmeña to focus on other complaints that he has filed against Rama.
“Moreover the herein withdrawal of the remaining contested and protested precincts will pave the way for the presentation of evidence by the protestant on his other causes of actions or grounds of protest which are not related to the recount or revision of ballots,” the motion read.
Both Osmeña and Young authorized Baltazar Rosuello to receive their balance from their cash deposits. Rosuello is their supervisor for their revisors during the recount proceedings on the 119 contested precincts.