Inhibition of Brillantes from poll cases sought

MANILA, Philippines - An election watchdog has asked the Supreme Court (SC) to prevent Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. and two senior commissioners of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from participating in the resolution of election protests emanating from yesterday’s midterm polls.

In a 26-page petition for prohibition filed last Friday afternoon, the Kontra Daya accused Brillantes and commissioners Lucenito Tagle and Elias Yusoph of having “contumacious blind loyalty to Smartmatic,” provider of precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines used in the automated polls.

“The public respondents have been incredibly stubborn and repugnantly quarrelsome in refusing to heed the multisectoral clamor” for review of the source code of the PCOS machines, the group alleged.

Petitioner argued it was too late for Brillantes to agree to allow the review of the source code when the 78,000 PCOS machines were already distributed to precincts nationwide.

With this, Kontra Daya asked the SC to order the three respondents “to inhibit and take no part in the resolution of electoral protests commencing on or after 13 May 2013 until the lapse of a grace period of three months within which political parties, candidates and citizens’ arms shall finally be able for the first time to exercise their right to review the source code.”

“If the source code turns out to be not ‘one and the same’ as the one actually in use for the 13 May 2013 elections, petitioners pray for declaration that such grand scale mass deception constitutes ‘culpable violation of the Constitution’ and/or ‘betrayal of public trust’ that are ripe for commencement of impeachment proceedings,” the group added.