Comelec finishes recount of 2007 Pampanga votes

By Fred Roxas

SAN FERNANDO CITY, Pampanga — The provincial government of Pampanga is on tenterhooks after the Commission on Elections finished Wednesday the recount of gubernatorial votes cast in the 2007 elections in this province.

But Edgardo Cervando of the Comelec’s second division said that no announcement of the results of the recount could be made yet pending the “appreciation” of the results by Comelec officials.
Ballots from a total 4,683 ballot boxes from all over Pampanga were revised, he said.

The result of the recount could either retain Gov. Eddie Panlilio as Pampanga chief executive or install former provincial board member Lilia Pineda as new governor.

Pineda had filed the electoral protest that led to the recount of votes, alleging that Panlilio committed anomalies in the last polls and that her alias “Nanay Baby” was not counted in her favor.

Cervando said that all 21 committees of revisors finished the recount by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, although some committees, which had only a few ballot boxes to count on that day, finished their task as early as 2 p.m.

He said that as of Wednesday, the committee still had to add up the results of their counts for a “revisors’ report” to be signed by the chairmen of each committee and submitted to the poll body’s second division.

After the report is submitted, the commission en banc will set a hearing for the marking of exhibits on the revision report.