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Advocates Philippines
Rosales Vice Mayor Asks COMELEC To Halt RTC Ruling Voiding Poll Results
Proclaimed Rosales, Pangasinan Vice Mayor John Isaac Kho has turned to the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) for immediate relief after a local court invalidated the automated results of the May 12, 2025 elections and declared his opponent the rightful winner.
The petition, filed urgently before COMELEC, seeks to stop the enforcement of a ruling by the Regional Trial Court Branch 53, which on November 24, 2025 overturned Kho’s proclamation. This was despite the official Automated Counting Machine (ACM) results earlier showing him ahead by 1,208 votes—20,201 for Kho versus 18,993 for election protestant Susan Casareno.
However, the RTC favored a manual recount, which flipped the outcome: 20,705 votes for Casareno and 18,730 for Kho. The court stressed that physical ballots serve as the “best and most conclusive evidence” of voter intent and raised questions about discrepancies it found between actual ballots and machine-generated election returns.
Kho, in his plea to COMELEC, warned that letting the ruling stand would shake public faith in the country’s automated election system.
“If discrepancies like this can happen in Pangasinan, where else could ACM results be questioned? This directly contradicts earlier statements by COMELEC Chairman George Garcia that the 2025 elections achieved a 99.997% accuracy rate,” his camp said.
The vice mayor is alleging serious irregularities, including ballot tampering and substitution. His team flagged 106 votes credited to Casareno that reportedly had no corresponding Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) receipts. They also pointed to mismatched signatures of board chairpersons, COMELEC logos printed off-center, inconsistencies in paper color, and unexplained or “phantom” marks—indicators, he argued, of possible manipulation.
To address these issues, Kho has asked the poll body to authorize the decryption and printing of digital ballot images stored in the ACMs’ secure data storage devices. He emphasized that cross-referencing the encrypted ballot images with the physical ballots is a critical safeguard under election procedures.
Kho said preventing access to these digital records effectively blocks him from presenting key evidence.
As Kho awaits COMELEC’s action, the case has drawn wider attention for what it may imply about the integrity of automated elections—an issue that could have national repercussions as preparations continue for future polls.
The petition, filed urgently before COMELEC, seeks to stop the enforcement of a ruling by the Regional Trial Court Branch 53, which on November 24, 2025 overturned Kho’s proclamation. This was despite the official Automated Counting Machine (ACM) results earlier showing him ahead by 1,208 votes—20,201 for Kho versus 18,993 for election protestant Susan Casareno.
However, the RTC favored a manual recount, which flipped the outcome: 20,705 votes for Casareno and 18,730 for Kho. The court stressed that physical ballots serve as the “best and most conclusive evidence” of voter intent and raised questions about discrepancies it found between actual ballots and machine-generated election returns.
Kho, in his plea to COMELEC, warned that letting the ruling stand would shake public faith in the country’s automated election system.
“If discrepancies like this can happen in Pangasinan, where else could ACM results be questioned? This directly contradicts earlier statements by COMELEC Chairman George Garcia that the 2025 elections achieved a 99.997% accuracy rate,” his camp said.
The vice mayor is alleging serious irregularities, including ballot tampering and substitution. His team flagged 106 votes credited to Casareno that reportedly had no corresponding Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) receipts. They also pointed to mismatched signatures of board chairpersons, COMELEC logos printed off-center, inconsistencies in paper color, and unexplained or “phantom” marks—indicators, he argued, of possible manipulation.
To address these issues, Kho has asked the poll body to authorize the decryption and printing of digital ballot images stored in the ACMs’ secure data storage devices. He emphasized that cross-referencing the encrypted ballot images with the physical ballots is a critical safeguard under election procedures.
Kho said preventing access to these digital records effectively blocks him from presenting key evidence.
As Kho awaits COMELEC’s action, the case has drawn wider attention for what it may imply about the integrity of automated elections—an issue that could have national repercussions as preparations continue for future polls.
Feb 16, 2026
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