HRET upholds election of Manila Rep. Manuel Luis Lopez

READ: House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal junks poll protest vs. Manila 1st District Rep. Manuel Luis Lopez filed by opponent Benjamin Asilo. @gmanews pic.twitter.com/uDPSBXDtsd

— Erwin Colcol (@erwincolcol) November 5, 2020

The House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) has upheld the victory of Manila 1st District Representative Manuel Luis Lopez in the 2019 elections after it junked the electoral protest of his lone opponent, former lawmaker Benjamin Asilo.

In a resolution promulgated on August 27 but was released to the media only on Thursday, the nine-member tribunal dismissed the electoral protest filed by Asilo for being "insufficient in form and substance."

Lopez has secured 86,993 votes against Asilo, who garnered 73,306 votes, in the 2019 elections, but the latter questioned whether the result of the polls actually reflected the will of the people of the first district of Manila.

The HRET dismissed the electoral protest after Asilo manifested that he would no longer present the 112 witnesses who would supposedly prove the alleged election irregularities.

Instead, a technical examination expert would be presented to testify on the results of the technical examination of the signatures and/or thumb marks of the voters found in the Election Day Computerized Voters' Lists in the protested clustered precincts, as well as the members of the Board of Canvassers to testify on the nine unaccounted State of Votes by Precincts.

The HRET said Asilo's move to do away with presenting the 112 witnesses "only shows that his causes of action are not lodged in the election frauds, irregularities and anomalies given by said witnesses but on the alleged 'shocking discrepancy' between the number of voters 'who actually voted' as against the 'total number of combined votes obtained' by him and Lopez.

"The Tribunal does not accept a mere allegation of the existence of a questionable mathematical disparity of votes for it fails to establish a cause of action necessary to initiate an action before the Tribunal," it added.

Moreover, the HRET also said Asilo merely wanted to conduct manual recount of ballots to confirm his suspicion that he was cheated, believing the purpose of presenting a technical examination expert is to "verify those voters who actually voted during the 2019 elections."

Lopez welcomed the decision of the HRET to uphold his election victory.

“Since the beginning, we are confident that the will of the people and the choice of my constituents will emerge victorious against this obvious political maneuver. We thank the HRET for settling this matter once and for all,” he said.

“Our landslide win was clear and irrefutable that even our opponent failed to present his supposed ‘witnesses,'" he added. — RSJ, GMA News