A group petitioning for people’s initiative for a manual recount of all the votes in Pangasinan by the Commission on Election submitted additional 26,000 signatures to the Provincial Elections Office in Dagupan City on Tuesday, May 24, in addition to the 21,000 signatures earlier submitted on May 16.

The petition for people’s initiative with the initial 21,000 signatures enclosed in it, was already forwarded by Provincial Elections Supervisor Erickson Oganiza to the Comelec regional office in San Fernando City, La Union and then to the Comelec central office in Manila for decision on the matter.

This was bared by lawyers Michael Franks Sarmiento, city elections officer of Dagupan who represented Oganiza at the KBP Pangasinan Forum on Wednesday (May 25).

However, Oganiza earlier told newsmen that the only way the sealed ballots boxes that contain the ballots can be reopened to pave the way for manual recount would be through an election protest filed in court by the losing parties, and the reglamentary period for filing an election protest had already lapsed.

Sarmiento echoed the same process as he pointed out that that the right process is to file an election protest with the regular courts that have jurisdictions in their areas and to pick out at least three clustered precincts where they think their votes were shaved off and credited to their opponent.

It is the first time that such a people’s initiative was filed following an election in the country, he said.

“So, let’s wait for any pronouncement of the Comelec central office on this matter,” Sarmiento said.

The new signatures were submitted by Atty. Laudemer Fabia, counsel of the petitioners who find the results of the recent elections in Pangasinan suspicious and not credible.

The new 26,000 signature submitted to the Comelec came from various parts of Pangasinan. The signatories all expressed surprise about the outcome of the last election in Pangasinan. (Leonardo Micua)

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