Tolentino's camp casts doubt on senatorial results over 'hash code' issue

MANILA, Philippines – The camp of senatorial candidate and former Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Francis Tolentino echoed the sentiments of vice presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos regarding the controversial move of tech provider Smartmatic in changing the line of code in the transparency server.

Tolentino’s legal counsel Lawyer Wanda Talosig said they have to investigate the irregularities they saw in the three servers receiving the transmitted votes from different precincts nationwide.

“We have to investigate in view of the hash code alteration which the Comelec (Commission on Elections) itself admitted,” Talosig said.

READ: Comelec has eyes on poll results, to settle issues later

Because of this, the camp of Tolentino is opposing the call of some leading senatorial candidates for an early proclamation of winners.

Talosig believes that they still have a chance to enter the so-called magic 12 given the 1 million gap from former Justice Secretary Leila de Lima who is sitting at the 12th spot.

RELATED: Comelec: 12 senators to be proclaimed by next week

As per the partial and official results of the canvassing, De Lima had 13,894,048 votes, while Tolentino got 12,604,848.

“In the spirit of transparency kailangan nating ipakita sa lahat na na-transmit (votes). Hindi naman po sa dinedelay ni candidate Francis Tolentino ang proclamation,” the lawyer said.

Marcos’s camp raised the issue of changing of codes which occurred shortly after the start of transmission of votes on election day, May 9, 2016.

READ: Direct Smartmatic staff to stay in Philippines, Guanzon urges Comelec

The vice presidential candidate claimed that her rival Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo benefited from the alteration of codes after surpassing his lead on Tuesday midnight.

The poll body already dismissed the issue and stressed that the changing of code did not affect the result of the election.

Earlier, Commissioner Rowena Guanzon urged the Comelec en banc to issue a memorandum to stop Smartmatic officials from leaving the country until their investigation ends.