NP opposes Comelec decision to stop testing, sealing of poll machines

The Nacionalista Party (NP) on Tuesday opposed the decision of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to stop testing and sealing of automated poll machines after some units produced discrepancies between electronic and manual results. “They have to go on with the testing. They have to make sure that all the counting will be reflective of the votes cast," NP spokesperson and senatorial candidate Gilbert Remulla said in a press conference in Intramuros, Manila. The NP also discovered during Tuesday’s testing that the votes cast for its congressional candidate Benjamin Tria, in six municipalities of Mindoro, were not counted. Tria, incumbent Looc mayor, is running against incumbent Rep Amelita Villarosa, who is the acting chairperson of Lakas-Kampi. Election returns secured by NP showed that Tria’s votes in the municipalities of Magsaysay, Rizal, Calintaan, Sablayan, Sta. Cruz, and Mamburao were not read. In three precincts in Barangay Poblacion, Magsaysay, for example, automated counting showed zero votes for Tria but a manual count of the votes revealed that he got 15 votes. Tria blamed Villarosa for it. “I accuse the chairman of Lakas-Kampi at isa sa deputy speakers ng Kongreso of masterminding a grand design to cheat in the coming May elections. Lahat ng pabor ay nasa kanya, lahat ng zero ay nasa akin. Nakapagtataka. Matagal nang ikinakalat ang balitang iyan na ang boto ay sa inyo pero ang bilang ay sa amin," he said. (I accuse the Lakas-Kampi chairman and one of the deputy speakers of Congress of masterminding a grand design to cheat in the coming May elections. Everything will work in her favor while I will get zero votes. This is strange.) Technical problem Villarosa, for her part, said Tria’s accusations were “irresponsible," since the failure of the PCOS machines to read votes accurately is a “technical problem" that should not be ascribed to any candidate. “He should be careful of such statements because I can sue him for libel. This problem is happening not only in Occidental Mindoro, but in the entire country. To come up with such statements is not only irresponsible but also childish," she told GMANews.TV in a phone interview on Tuesday. The ruling party chairperson said she had already reported the glitches to Comelec chairman Jose Melo. The poll body chief the problem was due the format of the ballots, Villarosa said. Villarosa urged local candidates to stop pointing fingers among themselves and to just work together to make sure that the poll results will be accurate. “Obviously, there is something wrong with the system. This technical problem should not be ascribed to anyone. We should not put malice into this matter," she said. More than just machine malfunction However, Mindoro Occidental Governor Josephine Ramirez-Sato said that the incident was more than a case of machine malfunction. If the incident involved only three to five machines, they would be inclined to believe that it was just a malfunction but almost all of the PCOS machines did read the votes for Tria, she said. "Humihingi kami sa Comelec na bigyang pansin ang nangyari sa Occidental Mindoro dahil seven out of 11 municipalities ang nagtest ng PCOS machines, sa lahat ng testing ang boto ng aming kongresista ay hindi nabilang ng machine, o ang lumalabas sa boto pero sa manual counting maraming boto. Naniniwala kami na ito ay napakialalaman ng isang maruming kamay," she said. (We are asking Comelec to pay attention to what happened in Occidental Mindoro. All votes of our congressional candidate which were cast in PCOS machines tested in seven out of 11 municipalities were not counted. But it later turned out during the manual count that our candidate got a lot of votes. We believe that someone with dirty hands interfered in the system.) Tria also questioned Villarosa’s alleged failure to go to their province to campaign. “Bakit hindi umuuwi si Villarosa upang mangampanya. Maraming kampanyahan na hindi siya umaattend, nagtataka sila bakit ganun. Ang opinion ng karamihan e baka me gagawing alam mo, na milagro, sapagkat parang kampanteng kampante siya na panalo na daw ang ibig sabihin," Tria said. (How come Tria isn’t visiting the province to campaign? She didn’t attend a lot of campaigns and they were wondering why that happened. The opinion of most people is that someone will perform some sort of miracle because she’s so confident of her victory.) Asked if the failure to read votes took place for candidates in national posts, Ramirez Sato said they cannot say as they were not given a copy of ERs for national posts. But Tria said his volunteers reported to him that an electronic count in a certain precinct showed zero votes for NP standard bearer Manuel Villar Jr. and Liberal Party presidential bet Sen Benigno Simeon Aquino III and 10 votes for Lakas Kampi bet Gilbert Teodoro Jr. but a manual count showed Villar and Aquino got five votes each. Comelec’s role The three asked the Comelec to address the matter promptly to bring back the public’s trust and confidence in the automated elections system. “They have to make assurance that in the succeeding test, there will no longer be any problem," Remulla said. Ramirez-Sato said the machine malfunction showed that there is a need for a parallel manual count but she also asked if the Comelec is ready for it. After the press conference, Remulla, Ramirez-Sato, and Tria went to the office of elections commissioner Lucenito Tagle to air their concerns and sentiments. The Comelec was holding an en banc meeting regarding the malfunction of PCOS machines when the three arrived and Tagle went out to receive them. “Nagkaroon tayo ng mock elections kung saan saan OK naman pero ngayon lumabas ito. We are trying to remedy it. We are really investigating the matter and we were assured naman that they be can remedied," Tagle told the NP group. (We organized mock elections in various other places and results turned out alright but this only came out now.) Tria’s experience was not an isolated case, he said, expressing confidence that the Comelec will be able to address the glitches. - RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV