Quimbo files poll protest vs Maan Teodoro, cites alleged irregularities
By Dhel Nazario
At A Glance
- Former lawmaker Stella Quimbo has filed an election protest against Marikina City Mayor Maan Teodoro, alleging machine errors, uncounted ballots, vote buying, and other irregularities that she claims undermined the integrity of the 2025 mayoral race and could have changed its outcome.
Former congresswoman Stella Quimbo has filed an election protest against Marikina City Mayor Maan Hontiveros Teodoro, alleging irregularities, anomalies, and fraud against her mid-term poll opponent.
Stella Quimbo (MB file photo)
Teodoro won the 2025 mayoral race by a margin of 31,394 votes after garnering 142,814 votes, compared to Quimbo’s 111,420 votes.
In her Aug. 8, 2025 memorandum to the Commission on Elections (Comelec), Quimbo alleged that the election was marred by the malfunctioning and misreading of Automated Counting Machines (ACMs), blatant vote buying, and ballots from priority polling precincts that were not fed into the ACMs and therefore not counted.
“As a consequence of the malfunctioning and misreading of the ballots, a total of at least 1,672 votes cast for Mayor were not read and counted by the ACMs,” Quimbo claimed.
“Aside from these, valid ballots containing votes for protestant Quimbo were also rejected and not counted in her favor,” the memorandum stated, adding the “incidents cast doubt on the integrity of the results of the election for mayor".
Quimbo also cited instances wherein the Electoral Board (EB) forgot to feed into the ACM 56 ballots used in the Priority Polling Precinct.
“To say that these incidents undermined the true will of the electorate is an understatement. Had these ballots been counted, the result of the election for Mayor would have been different,” she said.
In addition to the technical issues, Quimbo claimed that Department of Education (DepEd) personnel exhibited suspicious behavior. In one instance, the principal of Parang Elementary School suddenly asked for a meeting during the scheduled preliminaries to voting and before the opening of the precincts for early voting.
“As a consequence, there was no one to witness whether the ACMs had zero votes before the start of voting,” she said.
In some cases, Quimbo claimed her supporters and poll watchers were asked to leave the precinct, while a voter was stopped from casting a vote, even though it was not yet 7 p.m.
To back up her claim of irregularity and fraud, Quimbo said an unidentified man was seen entering a precinct at the Malanday Elementary School with a pre-shaded ballot, while another man was spotted while inserting a USB in the ACM without authority.
Quimbo requested that the commission issue an order directing the immediate collection and retrieval of all ballot boxes from the 363 merged/clustered precincts used in the recent elections, and undertaking a recount, revision, and reappreciation of ballots, as well as a due examination of election documents.