Comelec proclaims Roberto Uy Jr. as Zamboanga del Norte lawmaker

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Friday proclaimed Roberto “Pinpin” Uy Jr. as the winner of the 2022 race for first district representative of Zamboanga del Norte.

Uy’s proclamation happened two months after the Supreme Court decided that he legitimately won the 2022 race and ordered the poll body to proclaim him.

Comelec spokesperson Rex Laudiangco attended Uy's proclamation held at Comelec's Palacio del Gobernador office in Manila.

Uy’s proclamation was suspended by the Provincial Board of Canvassers (PBOC) on May 12, 2022, even though he got the most number of votes with 69,591 based on the complete transmission of election results.

Romeo Jalosjos Jr., who was proclaimed by the Comelec as the winning congressional candidate on June 23, 2022, originally placed second behind Uy with 69,109 votes, but the poll body decided to “legally pass” 5,424 votes obtained by Frederico Jalosjos (F. Jalosjos), who was earlier declared a nuisance candidate.

Due to this, Jalosjos got a total of 74,533 votes, winning over Uy by 4,942 votes.

The Comelec then said that the votes received by a nuisance candidate should be credited to the legitimate candidate with the same surname.

However, the SC ruled in August that candidates receiving the highest votes should be proclaimed without unnecessary delay.

“In Uy’s case, the Comelec, motu proprio, ordered the suspension of his proclamation even though the PBOC had a clear basis to proclaim Uy as the winning candidate, having garnered the highest number of votes,” the SC Public Information Office said in a statement.

The SC also said that despite similarities, the striking difference in the names of “Jalosjos, Kuya Jan (NUP)” and “Jalosjos, Jr., Romeo (NP)” on the ballots is more than enough to distinguish the entries.  —VBL, GMA Integrated News