CEBU, Philippines - The House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal on February 23 issued a 53-page decision dismissing the election protest filed by lawyer Jerome “Jerry” Paras against incumbent Representative Manuel Iway (1st district, Negros Oriental).
The HRET, chaired by Supreme Court Justice Presbiterio Velasco, Jr., dismissed the protest when it became evident that the “[t]he revision and appreciation of 90 clustered precincts comprising 25 percent of the 361 protested precincts [would] show that the officially proclaimed results of the congressional election were not substantially affected.”
The Negros Oriental provincial board of canvassers, on May 18, 2013, proclaimed Iway the elected congressman of the district for garnering 67,880 votes against Paras’s 66,072 votes.
The difference of 1,808 votes and allegations of massive election anomalies, irregularities and other electoral frauds prompted Paras to file an election protest against Iway on May 31, 2013.
After the manual recount and revision of the protested precincts, the HRET found that Paras only gained 75 ballots and that there was “no compelling ground to proceed with the (recount of the) remaining 75 percent protested precincts.”
The election protest was dismissed with Paras failing to offer any evidence to prove his claims of “massive election anomalies.” Iway said.
Lawyer George Erwin Garcia, legal counsel for Paras, stated in a text message that Paras is not planning to contest the decision of the HRET. —Contributed article (FREEMAN)