A FILIPINO-JAPANESE activist on Wednesday accused the Philippine Embassy in Japan of irregularities, discrepancies and problems with the vote counting machines and the alleged prejudice of its staff against a supporter of vice presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
In several letters to selected reporters, Socorro Yuko Takei of the Crusade for the Protection of Philippine Interests in Japan and the Philippine Women’s League of Japan enumerated the alleged bias against the supporters of Marcos Jr., the only son of the late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
Takei claimed the alleged irregularities in the result of the votes and several postponements and delays in the canvassing of the votes in Tokyo and Osaka.
Based on a survey in Tokyo, Takei said, the majority of the registered Filipino voters there had all expressed partiality to Marcos.
However, Takei and her fellow poll watchers were surprised when they received the unofficial results of the voting, in which Senator Marcos came in second to Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, the running mate of leading presidential contender Rodrigo Duterte.
“Senator Marcos came out second only to Alan Cayetano when we expected him to win with Mayor Duterte,” Takei said.
She also slammed the Philippine Embassy for lack of transparency. During the canvassing of the votes in Tokyo and Osaka, which Takei and her fellow poll watchers were able to observe from 8 p.m. of May 9 and 10 a.m. the next day, the embassy, she said, failed to issue and give them the Certificate of Canvass.
The embassy staff said they could not issue any COC because the VCMs encountered “some technical problems.” This supposedly also prevented the canvassing of votes in Osaka to be conducted according to schedule and the transmission of the canvassing results delayed.
“The canvassing of votes in Tokyo was finished but the Certificates of Canvass could not be issued because the votes from Osaka have yet to be canvassed,” said Takei who named Consul General Joy Ignacio as the source of this information.
Takei said they were told that if they did not have representatives there on the day they issued the COC, it would no longer be issued to them later.
“Accordingly, we told our accredited poll watchers to be there on time on the day they make the canvass of all the final votes,” she said.
“The funny thing is, when they announced they were having problems in Osaka, we also learned from friends and contacts on Social Media that the machines in other parts of the world like Europe and the Middle East also broke down.”
