THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) dismissed the election protest filed by former Cebu City mayor Michael Rama, upholding Mayor Nestor Archival Sr.’s landslide victory in the May 2025 midterm polls.
In a ruling dated Aug. 27, 2025, the Comelec Second Division declared Rama’s protest “insufficient in form and content” under Section 7, Rule 6 of Comelec Resolution 8804, which governs electoral disputes under the Automated Election System.
It ruled that the petition lacked the specificity required to proceed, leading to dismissal under Section 9 (b) of the same resolution.
Lawyer Amando Virgil Ligutan, counsel for Archival, announced the decision on Friday, Aug. 29.
Ligutan said they received the Comelec’s decision on Aug. 28 dismissing the election protest, stressing that the ruling made it clear the elections and the results were valid.
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Archival garnered 256,197 votes (43 percent), while Raymond Alvin Garcia finished second with 176,967. Rama placed third with 120,124 votes (20 percent), trailing Archival by 136,073 votes.
The poll body noted that Rama’s protest questioned only eight clustered precincts out of 790 and attached just five witness affidavits, four of which cited precincts that failed to establish widespread irregularities.
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Some affidavits also raised irrelevant issues, while others lacked evidentiary value.
“The lack of specificity as to the place of the commission of the acts or omissions complained of is therefore crystal clear,” the decision stated.
Rama’s petition alleged malfunctioning automated counting machines, ballot shortages, transfer of voters between precincts, irregular ballot allotments, anomalies in ballot transport, vote-buying, and questionable voter turnout.
However, the Comelec ruled that the allegations were unsubstantiated and insufficient to contest the official results.
