Comelec junks protest vs Lipa mayor

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has affirmed the victory of Mayor Eric Africa of Lipa City in Batangas over Meynard Sabili in the May 9 elections.

Comelec acting spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco yesterday confirmed that the second division of the poll body dismissed the election protest filed by Sabili.

In a seven-page decision issued on July 19 and signed by Commissioners Marlon Casquejo and Rey Dulay, the poll body said Sabili’s allegations were ”insufficient in form and content.”

The Comelec said Sabili’s camp failed to substantiate its allegations that there was massive malfunction of the vote counting machines in all the 333 clustered precincts in Lipa, resulting in election fraud, irregularities and anomalies.

In his protest, Sabili sought a manual recount of votes.

The Comelec said official results showed that Africa won as mayor of Lipa with 138,674 votes against Sabili’s 45,000 votes. Another candidate, Nestor Sanares, got 6,018 votes.

Africa’s camp welcomed the Comelec ruling, saying Sabili’s protest contained “unfounded and unsupported” allegations to annul the votes cast in his favor.

“The mandate of the people cannot be disregarded by force, lies or ill-motive. The will of the electorate will always be the greatest weapon of our democratic state,” Africa said.

Sabili served as mayor of Lipa from 2010 to 2019. Africa succeeded him in 2019.