Pollwatch group notes vote-shaving in 10 towns

Task Force Poll Watch, an anti-fraud and monitoring group formed by partylist groups, reported Friday vote-shaving in at least 10 areas nationwide, resulting in 73 percent loss of votes for Bayan Muna, Anakpawis, Gabriela and Kabataan

Genuine Opposition senatorial candidate Loren Legarda was also affected in one town.

“As per reports from 10 towns, vote-shaving reduced votes for our partylist groups by 73 percent. Our partylist groups got 9,739 votes but we were only credited with 2,534 in the canvassing stage,” said Bayan Muna Secretary-General Nathanael Santiago.

Santiago said that the nationwide vote-shaving was “a massacre of votes, and we could only guess who are benefiting from the votes stolen from us and the Filipino people.”

“These are only partial reports. We suspect that more such incidents remain unreported, and that more votes may have been stolen or are being stolen nationwide,” said Santiago. “There is obviously a campaign to deny our partylists and GO a full, complete and credible count of our votes.”

In Mountain Province, Legarda’s more than 900 votes did not appear correctly in the Certificate of Canvass (COC), while Bayan Muna votes were reduced from 180 to a measly two.

In Balbalan, Kalinga, 600 votes for Bayan Muna, Kabataan and Gabriela disappeared and remain unaccounted for in the COC.

In Mabini, Batangas, pollwatchers noted that 4,109 votes for Bayan Muna were recorded only as 409, while Gabriela’s 414 votes were written as 214. In both instances, the canvassers corrected the figures due to protests by pollwatchers.

In Magpaet, North Cotabato, Gabriela obtained 2,218 votes but the COC recorded only 983.

In Columbio, Sultan Kudarat, Anakpawis reportedly got zero in the municipal canvass but the ERs say the partylist got 238.

Vote-shaving incidents were also reported in towns of Isabela, Cavite, Rizal, Catanduanes and Misamis Oriental.