Lopez lodges election protest over Manila poll results
Claims “massive fraud;” results ‘statistically improbable’
PARTIDO Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP) Manila mayoralty candidate, Atty. Alex Lopez, who was personally picked by President-elect Ferdinand ‘Bongbong/BBM’ Marcos Jr. to lead the PFP’s quest for national good governance, on Monday, May 23, 2022, filed an election protest at the Commission on Elections (COMELEC), over the result of the local elections won by erstwhile vice-mayor and now mayor-elect, Ma. Shielah ‘Honey’ Lacuna-Pangan.
Based on the ‘COCs’ (certificate of canvass), Lacuna garnered 538,595 votes against Lopez, who garnered 166,098 votes.
The 4 other mayoralty candidates, Rep. Amado Bagatsing, former police general Elmer Jamias, Onofre Abad and Christy Lim, garnered 118,694 votes, 4,057 votes, 2,618 votes and, 14,857 votes, respectively.
Lopez, however, in a statement, said the results were “statistically improbable” as they were attended by “massive fraud” purportedly committed by the camp of Lacuna.
The election result for Manila also showed that only the ‘Asenso’ team of Lacuna and outgoing mayor, Isko Moreno, or those allied with them, won in the local elections for a ‘shutout record’ of “44-0,” a first in the history of Manila politics.
In a statement, Lopez said his decision to file an electoral protest is “a fight for truth, democracy and the rule of law.”
He noted that after losing by just over 2,000 votes in his bid for Manila’s second congressional district in the 2019 midterm polls, “I readily conceded defeat, knowing I lost the race without any shade of fraud and chicanery.”
“But over the result of the just concluded May 9, 2022 elections, I am compelled to question its results convinced that they are not the reflection of the true will of Manilenyos, regardless of the huge difference in the final result of the votes. In short, the result is statistically improbable as it was attended by massive fraud,” Lopez said.
“I am compelled to question the result of the elections as right after and even up to now, I continue to receive mounting and incontrovertible proofs that only by resorting to various forms of electoral fraud was how our opponents got elected.
“And in the course of this election protest, we are confident that we would be able to prove the farcical result of the elections in Manila,” he added.
Lopez said while he could have just let the result of elections stand, he “owes” it to the “hundreds of thousands of Manilenyos” who supported him and his ‘Team Pagbabago’ during the campaign. “It is for them that I am entering this fight to the very end,” Lopez declared, adding:
“I also owe it to President-elect Bongbong Marcos and Vice-President-elect Sara Duterte, who both believe in my honesty and sincerity to work for the good of our nation’s capital and its citizens when they selected me as their candidate for mayor of Manila.”
Lopez stressed that while he is aware that his election protest would prove “long costly and very difficult,” he is also bothered by his “conscience.”
“I also owe it to my conscience if I will just stand by and not correct the gross injustice brazenly committed right in front of me and the entire citizens of Manila,” he said.
