MANILA, Philippines — Questionable ballot boxes were found in Naga City, hometown and bailiwick of Vice President Leni Robredo.
Just like in Bato and Baao towns, there were also wet ballot boxes found in Naga that would be covered by the ongoing recount of votes in the 2016 vice presidential polls by the Supreme Court sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET).
Apart from wet ballots, there were cut grasses discovered upon opening of the ballot boxes from Naga City.
The camp of the dictator’s son, former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr., again raised questions on this development.
His spokesman Vic Rodriguez stressed that the discovery of wet ballots and cut grasses in ballot boxes in Naga City further bolstered their allegation of poll fraud and suspicion that the evidence in the election protest of Marcos against Robredo had been compromised.
“We are convinced that more evidence of fraud, ballot box tampering and vote padding are to come out validating our case that the 2016 election for vice president is the worse in history,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Rodriguez also pointed to last week’s discovery of unused or excess ballots that had shaded votes for Robredo, ballots cut into half and wet ballots in several clustered precincts in Camarines Sur.
The ballot boxes from Naga were opened last Friday by the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET), which also started a recount for the congressional election in the third district of the province to resolve the protest of losing candidate Luis Villafuerte against Rep. Gabriel Bordado.
Some ballots were also found so organized and neatly stacked together with other documents in what appeared to be another “indication of tampering post election, unauthorized opening of boxes, and manipulation prior to revision while in the custody of the City Treasurer.”
After the revision at the HRET, the boxes from Naga will be turned to the PET for the revision of votes in Marcos’ protest.
During the first week of recount in the PET, several wet ballot boxes were found from Bato and Baao towns in Camarines Sur.
Some unused or excess ballots with shaded votes for Robredo and ballots cut into half were likewise discovered.
There were likewise missing audit logs from clustered precincts in Bato town discovered by revisors upon opening of the ballot boxes.
The camp of Marcos claimed that these discoveries could be proofs of election fraud.
Robredo’s lawyer said that Marcos was only trying to taint the results of the recount and twisting the developments to favor his protest.
Four of the 40 head revisers have resigned from their duties only a day after the start of the recount.
Robredo won the vice presidential race in the May 2016 polls with 14,418,817 votes or 263,473 more than Marcos’ 14,155,344 votes.
Marcos filed the protest on June 29, 2016, accusing Robredo’s camp of cheating in the automated polls in the May 2016 national polls.