A party-list group on Thursday asked the Commission on Elections to immediately investigate the alleged manipulation of the results of the May 9, 2016 elections.
The Confederation of Non-Stock Savings and Loan Associations Inc. cited inaccurate Twitter posts made by the citizen’s arm of the Comelec and through Consla legal counsel Joel Hernandez demanded that the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting through its spokesman Anna Singson should explain the discrepancies of voting results as posted on PPCRV’s social media account.
“We want to emphasize that it maybe an unofficial canvassing of votes but the PPCRV has a very grave responsibility in ensuring that what it publishes, or it tweets to the general public are accurate,” Hernandez told reporters in an ambush interview after Consla handed the letter to PPCRV and Comelec on Thursday.
“They said Singson has already made a public explanation regarding the discrepancies made in their Twitter account, but we want something in writing for our client,” he added.
In a letter-request addressed to Comelec chairman Andres Baustista, Consla cited the discrepancy in votes it garnered during the May 9 national and local elections based on the quick count conducted by the PPCRV and the Comelec in seeking a probe.
The group, which failed to obtain a seat in Congress, said that the discrepancy could be an indication of cheating and vote manipulation to favor certain candidates during the last elections.
“PPCRV twitted its partial canvassing of votes. So did multiple media outlets. How can votes canvassed by PPCRV from the Transparency Server, which essentially are the same votes canvassed by the Comelec, turn out completely different results? The Comelec needs to investigate this matter to avoid further allegations of irregularities during the May 2016 elections,” another Consla lawyer Rodolfo Sandiego said.
The party-list attached a copy of the screen capture of PPCRV’s Twitter feed provided by a certain Arnold “Bong” Arriola of the Buhay Party-list group on its letter-complaint submitted to the PPCRV to prove the anomaly.
The group claimed Arriola was able to take photographs of the partial and unofficial votes for party-list groups generated by the PPCRV Quick Count Results in the workstation of a certain Rommel Bernado.
The photos showed that Consla had garnered 342,513 votes from the 68,626 clustered precincts that had already transmitted their results to the transparency server of the Comelec.
The photos also show that the group ranked 17 among contending party list organizations with the stage of the completion of transmissions at 74.18 percent. Consla was one of the 115 party-list groups accredited by the Comelec to participate in the last election.
Hernandez added that Consla’s votes peaked to 555,896 by 12 noon on May 10 as shown in the photos.
“It therefore came as a surprise when the tally of votes by Comelec showed that Consla only garnered a total of 213,814 votes at rank number 54,” the lawyers stated in a statement.
Hernandez said the group could not accept the discrepancy considering that the election results that were transmitted to the PPCRV’s transparency server were the same data transmitted by the precincts to the Comelec in real time.
Sandiego, on the other hand, said complete disregard of discrepancies in the election results, according to the group, would only lend credence to other candidates’ claim of massive cheating and vote manipulation.
“To protect the sanctity of the ballot and prop Filipinos’ sagging belief in the electoral process, it is incumbent upon the Comelec to investigate the inconsistencies and discrepancies in the partial and unofficial results generated by PPCRV,” Sandiego urged Comelec.
Prior to its filing of a letter of request before the Comelec Law Department, Hernandez and Sandiego also went to the PPCRV national headquarters in Manila to file a letter of complaint seeking an explanation on the discrepancy of the votes it received.
In its letter-complaint addressed to PPCRV chairman Henrietta de Villa, Consla pointed out that the party-list group had already garnered 555,896 votes as of May 11, 2016 based on its quick count that was shown on its Twitter feed.
However, San Diego said the Comelec’s official and final tally showed a different result, with Consla garnering only a total of 213,814 votes at rank 54.
“In the spirit of transparency and in faithful compliance with your avowed duty of protecting the votes of the Filipinos, we request you to provide an explanation how Consla secured 555,896 votes as of May 11, 2016 based on your Twitter feed… and the total number of votes Consla obtained at the time you terminated your quick count operations,” the letter-complaint read.
Consla lawyers said that the group will wait for the Comelec’s response within 10 days before it file an official complaint or petition against the PPCRV.
Hernandez urged the Comelec to conduct a separate internal audit controls on the assumption that the PPCRV made a mistake.
“It’s all about responsibility and accountability. That’s the bottom line for our client,” Hernandez said.
Earlier, losing vice presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos also questioned the results in the VP race after officials of the Comelec and its technology provider Smartmatic Inc. admitted that there was an unauthorized alteration of a script in the transparency server while election results were being transmitted on May 9.