Administration presidential bet Manuel “Mar” Roxas congratulates Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte as he concedes defeat in the 2016 elections during a press conference at the Liberal Party headquarters in Cubao, Quezon City on Tuesday (May 10, 2016). He also profusely thanked all Daang Matuwid Coalition’s supporters for sticking with him till the end. “Let us start the process of nation building. Let us respect and accept the will of the people. It is clear that Mayor Duterte is the winner of this elections,” Roxas said. (MNS photo)
MANILA (Mabuhay) — The alleged Plan B of the administration being floated by the camp of Sen. Bongbong Marcos, which involves the impeachment of presumptive president Rodrigo Duterte, is too “extreme” at this point, an election lawyer said Wednesday.
Lawyer Romulo Macalintal also said cheating by programming vote counting machines (VCMs) to favor one candidate is impossible.
Macalintal said it is still too premature to talk about impeachment as Duterte, incumbent mayor of Davao City who won by landslide in the May 9 presidential race, has yet to be proclaimed.
“Yan yung masyadong extreme. Iniisip kaagad nila, hindi pa nga napo-proclaim na pangulo itong si Mr. Duterte ay impeachment agad ang pag-uusapan,” he said.
Marcos, a vice presidential candidate who is neck-and-neck with administration bet Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo based on latest unofficial tally, has accused the administration of plotting to oust Duterte to install Robredo as president.
Macalintal said the accusation was nothing but a “political statement” since Marcos did not specify the grounds on which Duterte could possibly be impeached. He also warned that the statement would only sow dissent among Filipinos.
“Hintayin natin kung magkakaroon ng appropritate grounds for impeachment. Yang sinasabi na Mr. Marcos ay political statement lamang na hindi makakatulong sa stability ng ating bansa na katatapos pa lang ng halalan,” he said.
“Yung nanalo nga humihingi na ng unity, bakit ganoon naman ang sasabihin ni Mr. Marcos? Hintayin muna natin kung ano talaga magiging resulta [ng bilangan],” Macalintal added.
Presidential and vice presidential candidates, including Duterte’s rivals Mar Roxas, Senators Grace Poe, Francis Escudero, and Gringo Honasan, have already urged Filipinos to unite behind Duterte.
“Dapat ang mga kandidato ang magbibigay ng kapayapaan sa ating mamamayan at hindi sila ang mag-create ng anumang situation na maglalagay sa alanganin nanaman sa ating halalan,” Macalintal said.
Meanwhile, Macalintal noted that programming the VCMs to favor only one candidate is impossible since the votes for president, vice president, and other national and local candidates are fed to only one SD card.
Macalintal questioned why the votes for Robredo would be wrong while the votes for Duterte were correct when the votes of the two came from only one VCM per clustered precinct.
“Kung saan nanggagaling ang boto ng pangulo, doon din nangagagaling ang boto ng vice president and other candidates. Hindi puwedeng sabihin na may daya yung kay Leni na SD card at walang daya yung kay Duterte,” Macalintal said.
“Kung may daya kay Duterte, may daya kay Leni. Kung malinis yung kay Duterte ay malinis din yung kay Leni at ganoon din sa other candidates,” he added.
If ever he files an election protest, Marcos should prove that the discrepancies in the votes per polling precinct were legitimate discrepancies and not only rejected ballots.
Macalintal said that markings on the rejected ballots could also play a factor on voter discrepancies since some voters did not follow in completely marking the oval beside the name of their preferred candidate.
He added that if a candidate led his nearest rival by only 10 points, with 20 possible rejected ballots per polling percent, that’s the time an election protest should be filed.
Macalintal also said claiming that malfunctioning VCMs is part of cheating would be hard to prove if a candidate’s lead over his closest rival is in the thousands.
As of 11:45 a.m. on Wednesday, Robredo was ahead of Marcos by more than 200,000 votes, or 13,951,352 over 13,719,659 votes.
“Kung malaki na ang lamang at sasabihing mali ang bilang ng [VCM], imposible yun. Parang sumusuntok sila sa buwan, yung mga ganyang uri ng protesta, yan ang protesta ng mga taong hindi marunong tumanggap ng pagkatalo,” Macalintal said.(MNS)