Ermita tags columnist as 'Koala' video source

MANILA, Philippines - Former executive secretary Eduardo Ermita denied being the source of the controversial video of an alleged election fraud whistle-blower known as “Koala Boy” and identified a Manila Times columnist as the source.

Makati City Rep. Teodoro Locsin, chairman of the House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms, earlier said that the source of the video in which the “koala bear” claimed the May 10 automated national elections were rigged was Ermita.

Locsin said his information came from the staff of Speaker Prospero Nograles.

In a phone interview, Locsin clarified that he never on his own directly linked Ermita to the controversial video.

Ermita said Manila Times columnist Buddy Cunanan gave him a copy of the video.

Cunanan, who also claimed to be a member of a citizen’s group, presented the videotaped interview of “Koala Boy” to the Catholic Church-organized media forum at Cafe Ilustrado in Intramuros, Manila last May 18.

In the videotaped interview, the whistle-blower wore a hat and his face was covered.

He said there were three ways to alter the results of the May 10 elections, namely ballot switching, pre-programmed flash cards, and intercepting the direct transmission of the results of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines three minutes ahead of the Board of the Election Inspectors (BEIs).

He also claimed that some Comelec officials, not referring to the commissioners, were involved in the tampering.

The video was played at the start of a House hearing on alleged election fraud presided over by Locsin last May 19.

Locsin called the alleged whistleblower a “koala bear” because of his appearance, but the alias was later changed to Koala Boy because koalas are not actually bears but marsupials.

Ermita said Cunanan gave him a copy of the video and told him that the masked man had mentioned that he (Ermita) was one of the candidates that the group had “operated on” in rigging the elections.

Tomas Apacible beat Ermita in the congressional race in the First District of Batangas.

Ermita challenged Koala Boy to reveal his identity and he also denied that President Arroyo is involved in the alleged election fraud.

Cunanan told GMA Channel 7’s news program “24 Oras” that a group of concerned citizens gave him the video tape of the man now called Koala Boy.

He, however, refused to identify Koala Boy or reveal the real motivation of the alleged whistle-blower.

“The only objective of our group of concerned citizens is that this be brought to the public’s attention in the hope that our government officials will probably investigate this. That’s our only purpose – for the truth to come out,” Cunanan told GMA News.

He said that they also do not take everything this man says as gospel truth.

When asked if Koala Boy’s intention was to malign the Comelec and undermine the automated elections, Cunanan said: “I can’t speak for this man. Only he can say, I mean, only he can speak about that.”

Manila Times publisher Dante Ang confirmed that Cunanan is a columnist in the newspaper. “But what he (Cunanan) does outside is his own independent action. We have nothing to do with his activities,” Ang said.

It has been a week since the video of Koala Boy’s exposé was publicly shown and up until now the masked whistle-blower’s revelations remain the talk of the town.

The whistle-blower claimed to have taken part in the manipulation of the May 10 elections. He said that the presidential race should have been between former Defense secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr. and former President Joseph Estrada.

He said that Teodoro and Estrada were leading the elections, and not Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.

Teodoro and Estrada, along with Bangon Pilipinas Party (BPP) bet Eddie Villanueva, were victims of vote shaving. 

Koala Boy claimed that Teodoro, presidential bet of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD party, was reportedly depriced of between 5-6 million votes, Estrada of the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) lost some 4 million votes, while Villanueva was deprived of 2 million votes.

The whistle-blower said that “dilaw (yellow),” referring to Aquino, should have received lesser number of votes. 

He said that PMP vice presidential bet Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay allegedly paid “players” to rig the outcome of the elections and that the candidate paid P1.4 billion in exchange for seven million votes.

Nograles files petition at Comelec

House Speaker Prospero Nograles, who lost his mayoralty bid in Davao City, asked the Comelec to take custody of the election paraphernalia and all other possible electronic data that would prove the alleged digital election fraud.  

In a 14-page petition, Nograles urged the poll body to annul the proclamation of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte and declare him as the duly elected mayor of the city.

Nograles said the Comelec should take immediate custody of all ballot boxes, compact flash (CF) cards and other paraphernalia used in the last election in Davao City and compare the actual valid votes to the data captured in the CF cards.               

He said the Davao City Board of Canvassers proclaimed Duterte as the winning candidate for having obtained a total of 388, 465 compared to the 160,225 votes he obtained in the May 10 elections.

Nograles said irregularities marred the conduct of the elections and that the fraud was so massive that it affected the results of the elections in all the 1,172 clustered precincts in Davao City.

He claimed that days before the election, the father of his opponent, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, ordered the deployment of 116 city hall employees at the Comelec district office and performed election duties last May 10.

Nograles said the election process was open for wholesale cheating when the Comelec recalled all the CF cards from the PCOS machines.

“No foolproof measure was ever taken to ensure the integrity and security of the automated elections despite the fact that election results could be changed by modifying the contents of the CF cards,” Nograles pointed out.

Nograles added that the Comelec also removed the required digital signatures of the BEIs in the electronically transmitted election returns, thus casting serious doubts as to whether the transmitted results came from legitimate PCOS machines.

“Premised on the antecedent facts, the canvassing and proclamation of the protester (Duterte) is null and void on the ground that electronically transmitted results do not contain the mandated digital signature,” Nograles said.

Nograles said there were discrepancies of votes in the consolidation and canvassing system and the precinct election returns. With Delon Porcalla, Mayen Jaymalin, Evelyn Macairan