Former MMDA chief Tolentino asks SET to unseat De Lima

Tolentino, who placed 13th in the senatorial race, was just about 1.3 million votes behind De Lima. (Facebook photo)

MANILA—Former Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and losing senatorial candidate Francis Tolentino has filed an election protest before the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) against Senator Leila De Lima.

During the closed door preliminary conference on Thursday in the Supreme Court, Tolentino specifically asked the tribunal to unseat De Lima for allegedly committing poll fraud.

The SET is composed of three Supreme Court justices and six senators.

Tolentino alleged that De Lima cheated in the automated polls by supposedly manipulating electronic transmission of results.

He noted that it was with the electronic transmission and there probably was double transmission.

Tolentino, who placed 13th in the senatorial race, was just about 1.3 million votes behind De Lima.

“If you saw the results, the margin of votes between the first place to the 12th place was only about 80,000 votes. But when it came to the 13th place, the margin became so big,” Tolentino recalled.

De Lima has submitted an answer to Tolentino’s protest where she denied the charges and said she did not even have resources to fund her campaign.

But Tolentino said that it’s not true. He is given five days to reply to de Lima’s answer.

”Kasi yung answer ni De lima nakalagay dun, wala syang pera nung kampanya so yung sinasabi namin ngayon, hind yan totoo kasi meron syang drug money na tumulong sa kanya,” he explained.

Asked what evidence he would submit to the SET to prove his allegation, the former MMDA Chief cited documents and witnesses gathered by his camp.

”May mga testigo tayo tapos may mga hawak tayong dokumento para magpatunay na nagkaroon talagang fraud noong nakaraang eleksyon,” he told reporters after the hearing.

Tolentino noted that apart from the ouster of De Lima and his proclamation as duly elected senator, he also hopes that his protest would lead to reforms in the automated polls.

“We are hoping that the counting of votes are done manually in the precincts and only the transmission of results is automated so that the people would really see that their votes are counted,” he added.

Last May, Tolentino already filed a petition before the SC seeking to stop the proclamation of bottom three winners in the senatorial race, citing the same allegation of electronic fraud.

But the SC dismissed the petition for being moot and academic after the proclamation of De Lima and other winning senators.