Buhay Party-list on Friday supported the call of the Confederation of Non-Stock Savings and Loan Associations Inc. (Consla) for the investigation of the alleged vote manipulation during the recent elections in May.
This was after an officer of Buhay executed a sworn-affidavit backing Consla’s complaint before the Commission on Elections and the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting about the discrepancy in the number of votes it garnered for the party-list elections on May 9.
Consla through its lawyer Rodolfo San Diego claimed that the group’s votes reached 555,896 by 12 noon of May 10 based on the PPCRV’s Quick Count posted on its Twitter account.
However, San Diego said the group was surprised to find out that the official result of the Comelec’s canvassing showed Consla with a total of only 213,814 votes.
Arnold Arriola, who works for Buhay Party-list, attested that the number of Consla’s votes had reached 342, 513 as of 10:40 p.m. of May 9 with 66,2626 clustered precincts or roughly 74.18 percent counted, and was ranked number 17 among contending party-list organizations.
In his affidavit, Arriola recounted that at around 8 p.m. of May 9, he went to the PPCRV headquarters to inquire about and monitor the results of voting for party-list groups.
After waiting for approximately three hours without getting information, he said, he decided to go in and talk to the first available person he met and asked for the status of the voting for the party-list candidates.
At 10:30 p.m., Arriola said he was able to talk to a certain Rommel Bernardo who agreed to show the quick count results.
Bernardo, according to Arriola, opened a workstation and showed him the partial and unofficial counting of votes for party-list groups according to the PPCRV quick count.
Arriola said he took photos of the screen using his cellular phone.
The photos, which Consla submitted to the Comelec and the PPCRV to support its complaint, would show the discrepancy in the votes tallied by PPCRV and the final results released by the Comelec, he added.
“The attached pictures are faithful reproductions of the photographs in my Experia [cellular phone]. The photographs have not been altered, whether digitally or otherwise,” Arriola assured.
He also said he was willing to submit his cellular phone for examination by the Comelec and the PPCRV.
On Thursday, Consla formally asked the Comelec to conduct an investigation into the discrepancy in the number of votes it garnered.
San Diego said the group relied on the accuracy of the results being published by the PPCRV and other media entities since they were given direct access to the Transparency Server to which election results from all precincts are being transmitted, by virtue of Comelec Resolution No. 10105A.
“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,” San Diego declared.
Likewise, CONSLA also demanded an explanation from the PPCRV with regard to the discrepancy “in the spirit of transparency.”
The group noted that during the early hours of the transmission of the election results last May 9, the PPCRV Quick Count had already tallied a total of 342,513 votes for CONSLA.
The following day, PPCRV’s own Twitter account (@PPCRV_2016), showed that CONSLA ranked 14th overall with 523,753 votes.
By 12 noon of May 10, CONSLA remained at 14th place with 555,896 votes.
However, San Diego said the group was surprised to find out that the official result of the Comelec’s canvassing showed CONSLA with only a total of 213,814 votes.