Osmeña, Young set to File Protest before Comelec

Cebu City South District Rep. Tomas R. Osmeña is expected to file tomorrow (Thursday) an election protest before the Commission on Elections-Manila against reelected Mayor Michael Rama.

Meanwhile, outgoing Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young is also scheduled to file a separate election protest against newly-proclaimed Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella.

Both Osmeña and Young claimed that the Comelec should look into several irregularities in the May 13 automated local and national elections in Cebu City that is why they lost to their opponents.

Osmeña lost to Rama by over 6,000 votes while Young was defeated by Labella for only 184 votes that prompted the outgoing vice mayor to think of asking the Comelec to count the votes in the hundreds of ballots that were rejected by the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines.

But Cebu City acting election officer Ferdinand Gujilde said the matter should be addressed by the Board of Election Canvassers (BEI) had the BOPK watchers raised the issue during the election day.

Osmeña explained that his protest will be filed earlier than that of Young’s considering that Rama was proclaimed before Labella in order to catch up the prescribed 10-day period.

“My protest has to be filed on or before Friday since the 10-day period expires on Friday. Young’s complaint is a little later,” Osmeña said. The law provides that all electoral protests are accepted at Comelec within 10 days from the proclamation.

Rama was proclaimed on May 14, while Labella on the 16th.

The Bando Osmeña Pundok-Kauswagan headed by the outgoing lawmaker of the city’s second district is questioning the victory Rama and Labella on allegations of manipulation.

But Rama and Labella who are both lawyers welcomed the filing of the election protest by their opponents.