More losing bets claim they were offered 'altered' CF cards

(Updated 5:21 p.m.) While playing golf in his home province in November 2009, the now defeated Surigao del Norte gubernatorial bet Robert Ace Barbers said he was approached by a man who offered him to 'pre-program’ compact flash cards in his favor. Costing P50 million, the pre-programmed compact flash cards would ensure his victory in the May 2010 elections, Barbers told the House Committee on Electoral Reforms and Suffrage on Monday, quoting the seller whom he refused to identify. These and more stories of election irregularities cropped up during the resumption of the House investigation on alleged poll fraud, including instances of "ballot cutting." Part of the operation would be to "replace CF cards with pre-programmed cards after testing. It means that he had predicted there will be a problem," Barbers said, citing the man whose identity he withheld. The "problem" being referred to was the widespread technical glitch that hounded testing of precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines a week before the May 10 elections or on May 3. Replacing cards found defective during testing with new, supposedly "reconfigured" cards was part of what he called "card switching." The reconfigured cards could have actually been the ones that were pre-programmed to favor certain candidates, he added. Defensor, Locsin and Lazaro, too Barbers’ testimony was then interrupted by Quezon City Rep. Matias Defensor Jr. so that he could "corroborate" Barbers' statements. Defensor, who ran for reelection, was defeated by Jorge Banal. "I too, Mr. Chairman, was offered by a man. It happened last January [2010]," Defensor said, addressing Rep. Teodoro "Teddy Boy" Locsin, who chairs the House Committee. Outgoing Laguna Gov. Teresita Lazaro, who attended the hearing, also claimed she was offered with pre-programmed CF cards. Her son, Dennis Lazaro, was also defeated in the gubernatorial race. Barbers, Defensor, and Lazaro were not the first individuals to claim that agents had been "roaming" around the country offering to rig the automated polls through pre-programmed cards. Two weeks ago, the camp of former President Joseph Estrada — who is in currently second place based on partial, unofficial results — claimed candidates running under Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino were given the same offer. During the same hearing, Barbers also said that the different time stamps printed on election returns was meant "to confuse those who will question election results in the future." During last week's hearing, Biliran Rep. Glenn Chong, who likewise lost his reelection bid, reported that some ERs from his province had time stamps saying May 10, 7:45 a.m., which he said, indicated that results were already transmitted only minutes after polls opened on May 10. Fake PCOS? On Monday's hearing, Barbers also showed a video footage of a Board of Election Inspector in a precinct in Surigao del Norte cutting the right side edge of a ballot. Barbers said BEI was doing so apparently because the ballot could not fit in the PCOS machine. "It's either the PCOS machine was fake or the ballot being inserted was fake," Barbers said. But even if the ballots are cut on any of its four sides, the counting machine could still read it so long as the security markings are still readable and are not tampered, Smartmatic president Cesar Flores said. Barbers quoted a local Comelec official as later telling him that the ballot was being cut probably because the paper had already expanded due to certain weather conditions in the province. But Barbers did not buy the explanation saying it was not "believable." 'Me too' syndrome? Commission on Elections (Comelec) spokesman James Jimenez, for his part, said the "admissions" of some defeated lawmakers of being offered pre-programmed CF cards is just a case of the "me too" syndrome. "We hope that those who claim to have received such offers can make good on their claims," Jimenez told reporters in an interview on Monday. He likewise asked the lawmakers who supposedly received offers why they came out only now. "We find it very disappointing that people received offers to cheat the elections and either entertained the possibility or simply kept quiet," he said. "One would have expected that people intent on making sure that the elections would have worked (would) blow the whistle before any problem even cropped up," he added. Jimenez also said that they had already warned candidates to watch out for these kinds of offers even before the polls. "We already warned politicians that there would be these offers floating around and that they should let us know if they are the recipient of these things, no one did." — with Kim Tan/RJAB Jr./RSJ, GMANews.TV