Supporters of Sen. Bongbong Marcos protest outside the House of Representatives on Wednesday during the first day of the canvassing of votes. The protesters urged members of the joint canvassing committee to hold a separate date for the proclamation of the winner of the vice-presidential race.(MNS photo)
MANILA (Mabuhay) – Former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court (SC) to issue an order ensuring the safety and integrity of the ballots, documents and equipment related to his poll protest against Vice President Leni Robredo.
In an urgent manifestation, Marcos asked the high tribunal to issue a precautionary order directing the Commission on Elections (Comelec), data centers, and telecommunications firms involved in the May 9 elections to preserve the integrity and safety of the following:
(a) all ballot boxes and their contents, including the ballots, voter’s receipts and election returns;
(b) lists of voters, particularly the Election Day Computerized Voter’s List (EDCVL), and voters registration records (VRRs), and the books of voters;
(c) the audit logs, transmission logs, and all log files; and
(d) all other documents or paraphernalia used in the elections, including the automated election equipment and records such as the Vote Counting Machines (VCM), Consolidation and Canvass System (CCS) units, Secure Digital (SD) cards (main and back up), and the other data storage devices containing electronic data on the results of the elections in all of 92,509 clustered precincts throughout the country.
Apart from the Comelec, the precautionary order should also cover city/municipal Treasurers, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Smartmatic-Total Information Management (TIM) Corporation, IP Converge Data Services, Inc. and all data centers, Smart Communications, Inc., Globe Telecom, Inc., PLDT, Inc., Digitel Mobile Philippines, Inc. (Suncellular), and all telecommunications, Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) and Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) providers during the last elections.
Marcos said these entities should ensure that the said documents and paraphernalia would not be tampered with pursuant to Rule 36 of the Presidential Electoral Tribunal Rules.
They should also ensure the immediate collection, retrieval, transport and delivery of these documents and election paraphernalia, consistent with Rule 37 of the PET Rules.
Marcos also sought the issuance of the corresponding summons to Robredo in accordance with Rule 22 of the PET Rules.
In his electoral protest, Marcos asked the PET, made up of SC’s magistrates, to set aside Robredo’s proclamation on May 27 and instead declare him the winning vice presidential bet in the May 9 elections.
His lawyer George Garcia claimed that through a series of electoral frauds, certain people allegedly made sure that Robredo would win and that Marcos’ votes would be reduced.
Marcos’ electoral protest has three parts.
The first part shows that the system had vulnerabilities allegedly not remedied by Smartmatic and claimed that some groups reportedly exploited these flaws to reduce his votes and increase the votes of Robredo.
The second part of Marcos’ protest contains specific pieces of evidence of vote buying, intimidation, failure of elections, pre-shading, wholesale ballot feeding and the other abuses reported in the media.
The third part focuses on the unauthorized introduction by Smartmatic’s Marlon Garcia of a new hash code (or a new script / program) into the Transparency Server and the effects brought about by the so-called cosmetic change.(MNS)