Palace: Comelec, not Congress, should probe fraud

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) should take the lead in investigating the discrepancies and irregularities in the counting of ballots to allow Congress to proclaim the next president and vice president of the country, Malacañang said yesterday.

While Congress has the right to conduct a probe into the alleged discrepancies arising from the May 10 elections, presidential spokesman Ricardo Saludo said these issues “may be best brought to the bodies that are constituted to address election protests and election violations.”

Saludo expressed concern that the probe being conducted by the House of Representatives could delay the process of canvassing the votes and delay the proclamation of the winner of the presidential and vice presidential races.

“Who are we to tell Congress what they should or should not look into? They can look into that, but it can happen that if they use up all their time there then the proclamation might be delayed,” Saludo said in Filipino.

He said the same concerns could be raised during the canvassing period that would add up to the delay in the proclamation.

Saludo cited the national canvassing of the 2004 elections that was repeatedly delayed by protests and allegations of poll fraud.

“This is not to say those issues cannot be raised anymore. There are forums and institutions that can look at them closely,” Saludo said.

Allegations of widespread poll fraud prompted the House committee on electoral reforms and suffrage to conduct a probe at a time when Congress is pressured to immediately start the national canvass following the proclamation of the 12 winning senators and local candidates a week after the elections.

Apart from the arguments raised by several losing candidates, the allegations also stemmed from the claims of a supposed whistleblower that alleged widespread electronic hacking of results was committed during the elections.

Although no concrete evidence has been presented by the masked whistleblower, branded as “koala bear,” several groups urged the investigation to continue.

Makati Rep. Teodoro “Teddyboy” Locsin, chairman of the House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms investigating the allegations, blew his top and hurled invectives at officials of Smartmatic-TIM, the providers of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines used in the elections.

Locsin got angry after an official of Smartmatic admitted the glitches in the PCOS machines, particularly in the time and date settings, were just “part of unforeseen circumstances.”

Smartmatic executive Heider Garcia explained the time and date of the machines were set in their default settings, which resulted in the transmission of the voting results on a date earlier than May 10.

Losing candidates also aired their complaints against Smartmatic and Comelec officials, among them former Manila mayor Lito Atienza, former South Cotabato Gov. Manny Piñol and Antipolo Rep. Angelito Gatlabayan.

Atienza even presented a witness, Ronilda Reluya from the electronic data processing (EDP) unit in the office of the city mayor of Manila, who allegedly saw employees “encoding election results as early as April 26.”

Comelec executive director Jose Tolentino defended the poll body and Smartmatic, saying most sentiments or complaints were of the nature of “election fraud,” and this could not be entirely blamed on PCOS machines.

“There are no pre-programmed results in those compact flash cards,” Tolentino said in denying allegations of pre-programmed flash cards.

He also suggested the teachers comprising the Board of Election Inspectors may have “run out” of thermal paper to print out election results, which is why they made use of credit card thermal paper.

“The BEIs may have committed mistakes, but they cannot fool around with the machines,” Tolentino said.

Comelec Chairman Jose Melo also gave assurance that an investigation into the allegations is underway on a national scale, “so that we can check the discrepancies.”

Melo assured the House panel that Comelec and Smartmatic will devote a day to discuss all the kinks or glitches in the automated polls and how all of these issues could be addressed.

“We’re happy that complaints of congressmen now have concrete basis, that they have the chance to present their case, and now the Comelec and Smartmatic can address all these concrete problems,” Locsin later told reporters after the hearing.

Malacañang declared the May 10 vote was a success owing to the fast and efficient method of counting the ballots under the automated system.

Presidential adviser on political affairs Prospero Pichay said the May 10 elections were a success and that the rightful winners have already been determined.

He said a lot of the candidates for the top two positions, including the ruling party’s presidential bet Gilbert Teodoro Jr., have already conceded to the Liberal Party’s Sen. Benigno Aquino III, a manifestation that the results of the polls were in order.

Saludo also advised the media against playing up some of the allegations of poll fraud which, he said, “completely destroys public confidence in a process that actually, overall, was conducted well.”

He said the basic data about the May 10 elections, particularly the actual tally of votes, could be lost because of the focus given to the poll fraud allegations.

“A lot of coverage (of the poll fraud allegations) can make people lose faith in the process that overall might have actually been done quite well,” Saludo said.

Saludo stressed the need to conclude the entire process of canvassing before June 30, when the new president is sworn into office.

“We have had an election that is broadly accepted by people and we feel it’s already been achieved and the final act of achieving the President’s legacy would be a proper transition on June 30,” he said. –With Delon Porcalla, Eva Visperas, Rhodina Villanueva