Gordon scores slow Comelec count

MANILA, Philippines – Bagumbayan senatorial candidate Richard Gordon scored the slow count of the Commission on Elections, saying this is unfair both for Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo and Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and especially to the Filipino people.

Gordon was the author and sponsor in the Senate of the Automated Election Law, whose main purpose is to make sure that there would be “speed and security features so there would be no dagdag-bawas (vote-shaving and vote-padding) during elections.”

In a visit to The STAR office at Port Area, Manila yesterday, the former senator now poised to reclaim his old Senate seat said that the election machines are designed at the push of a button to transmit results right away to the canvassing centers all the way from the city to the provinces to the quick counts.

“I know there is a resolution that they made sometime in March this year allowing SD cards for those precincts that cannot transmit. This was because in 2013, allegedly 20 percent of the precincts were not able to transmit. But Comelec should tell the parties concerned so they could escort the SD cards, like in the old way when ballot boxes were escorted.”

Gordon said that the SD card is only as big as the nail of our finger and you can put 50 SD cards in one envelope. “That means 50 precincts. So like in a spy movie, they can be easily switched.  If  the  SD  cards  have  been switched, were will you look for the electronic signatures?”

He also said that Comelec is not implementing the electronic signatures as required by law of the three BEI inspectors so that voters will know who to hold accountable for in case there is a miscount or there is cheating.

“They insist that the machine itself is the electronic signature, but this… has been debunked. It is not acceptable in any court of law. Any lawyer will tell you that. It is exceedingly hard but so the law is written, you should follow the law.”

What is disturbing for him is that “they were very fast in the first hours. But when it came to the dead heat of the vice-presidential candidates, the count began to slow down. It is the duty of the Comelec to say where the votes are coming from, and to explain what is causing the delay.”

Gordon said this is dangerous especially in the light of the fact “there are talks that (winning presidential candidate Rodrigo) Duterte may declare something and therefore he can be impeached so they want a friendly VP who will take over. Perhaps they do not like Bongbong Marcos to take over?”

He said he is not siding with either Robredo or Marcos but only worried that this might “set us on the wrong path again, and it’s going to be a slippery path. There will be an unending, ceaseless recrimination that one was cheated and we are back in the system where nobody loses. Someone either won or was cheated.”