Estrada camp hits ‘massive selling’ of CF cards to cheat in May polls

The camp of presidential aspirant Joseph Estrada on Saturday claimed the May 10 polls were riddled with what it considered “massive marketing and selling" of pre-programmed Compact Flash (CF) cards, which contain instructions for the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines to read the ballots.

At a press conference in Mandaluyong City, Ambassador Ernesto Maceda, former president Estrada’s campaign manager, claimed that before the elections, some people offering CF cards – supposedly programmed to make a candidate win – approached the camp of the Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP). Maceda claimed the CF card brokers sell the programs for the PCOS machines from P30 to P50 million each. "There were brokers who approached us, but as to where these people came from or who they represent, I cannot yet tell right now," Maceda said. Also, he said that other political parties might have been offered. As for PMP, he said they refused the offer “simply because we do not have the money." For his part, Estrada's election lawyer George Erwin Garcia claimed a candidate in Laguna province (who he did not name) had gotten CF cards offer for P50 million, adding that two candidates for the House of representative had also come to him to report they were offered the same cards for P30 million each. Moreover, Maceda said that the PMP were receiving reports of massive irregularities in the May polls. Estrada's camp enumerated reports of "questionnable" election results in Manila, Quezon City, Cebu province, Davao City, and Compostela among other areas. Hocus PCOS At the press conference Saturday morning, Maceda urged Congress to step in and conduct an investigation on what he called “Hocus PCOS" in the recently-concluded elections. Maceda and Garcia asked Congress not only to ensure that all flash cards are surrendered for inspection but also conduct a review of the source codes used in the PCOS machines. "We have strong evidence that there were flash cards that were pre-programmed to reflect desired results instead of real results or real votes," Garcia said. Glitches marred testing of the PCOS machines a week before the May 10 elections, prompting the Comelec to replace the CF cards with new ones. But the speed at which the replacements were delivered also triggered doubts from Estrada's camp, saying it was "logistically improbable" to deliver the new CF cards in three days. Estrada's camp also asked that Smartmatic-TIM, which provided the PCOS machines, be investigated for subcontracting a company called Venture Link International for the supposed reconfiguration of defective flash cards. Garcia claimed they have learned that Venture Link International was the firm behind the series of recent hacking of government websites. Last Friday, independent presidential candidate Sen. Maria Ana Consuelo “Jamby" Madrigal said “pre-programmed" CF cards might have caused her to get fewer votes than disqualified presidential aspirant Vetellano Acosta. [See: 'Preprogrammed' compact flash cards got me fewer votes, Jamby says] Maceda acknowledged Madrigal's description of this year's elections, saying "I will take Sen. Madrigal's graphic desciption and say that these are all clear proof of an 'electronic Garci,'" he said. The "Hello, Garci?" scandal erupted in 2006 when wiretapped conversations of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and a Comelec official about rigging the 2004 polls surfaced. Radio dzBB on Saturday noon quoted Smartmatic (the firm contracted to provide equipment for the automated polls) as saying that it was impossible to pre-program the CF cards. As of this posting, GMANews.TV was trying to contact the Commission on Elections for comments. Senatorial candidate Francisco "Kit" Tatad said during the same press conference that they would also be preparing possible impeachment cases against certain Comelec officials for violation of election laws. "The Comelec failed to impose the fair elections act. It failed to give us free space and airtime in newspapers and televisiom, as provided by law," said Tatad, a PMP guest candidate.— LBG, GMANews.TV