Comelec creates panel to probe CF cards found in CDO

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Thursday said that it has created a panel to investigate the recovery of some compact flash (CF) cards in a junk shop in Cagayan De Oro City (CDO) in southern Philippines. Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said they created the panel to look into how the CF cards were stolen and what was the motive behind it. "We just want to get to the bottom of it. How was the Comelec office penetrated? Why [were the CF cards] thrown in the junk shop? Why did the person not report it to Comelec and instead went to the media?" Larrazabal told reporters at a news briefing. Larrazabal said that all they can do now is guess as to what happened. "I believe it was stolen and dumped. Again we don’t want to preempt the investigation and the report that will come out but we are taking positive action on this matter," he said. He said the panel will be composed of a poll official, a regional state prosecutor, and a member of citizens' arm Legal Network for Truthful Elections (Lente). He also said that the panel's investigation will be conducted as the same time as the probe of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

As of Thursday afternoon, the CF cards have been brought to the office of Comelec chairman Jose Melo for safekeeping. Larrazabal said they will not touch the cards until the investigation is finished. The CF cards tell the voting machine how it should read a ballot. Without it, the PCOS unit will not read the ballot and won't have any votes to transmit to the municipal or city board of canvassers. Antipolo incident At the same time, Larrazabal said they have also directed the PNP to investigate who "incited" chaos in Antipolo because of the discovery of 60 Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines in the home of a Smartmatic technician. "Unfortunate things happened there, people were incited and misled. We'd like to get tot he bottom of this," he said. The Comelec had earlier said that the Smartmatic personnel was only following procedures when he kept the units in his custody amid supposed security threats in the area, though it did not seem to appease residents. On Monday, losing presidential bets Sen. Anna Consuelo “Jamby" Madrigal, Olongapo City Councilor John Carlos de los Reyes, and environmentalist Nicanor Perlas even conducted an unauthorized inspection of some of the PCOS machines. Larrazabal noted, however, that he does not wish to speculate who was behind the chaos. "Let's start with the basic matter which (is to) investigate," he said. He said that the PNP has alreay commmitted to submit a report to the poll body after the investigation. — Kimberly Jane Tan/RSJ, RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV