Imee Marcos: Do we really want automated elections?

Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos, whose brother is protesting his loss in the 2016 vice presidential race, on Tuesday questioned the need for automated elections when poll disputes, she said, are eventually settled manually.

On the second day of the manual vote recount that is part of ex-senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. contest against Vice President Leni Robredo, the Ilocano governor briefly alluded to a preference to return to manual voting, which was replaced by full automation in 2010.

"Mahirap 'yung automated talaga, kasi we're all ruled by machines and we don't know of the machines were messed with, were they tampered with, did someone come in and start doing the mysterious rehash of the codes? These are really the issues that have to be dealt with," she told reporters at a Manila restaurant.

"Gusto ba talaga natin ng automated na ganito, na kulang kulang 'yung audit log, nababasag 'yung so-called weather-proof, water-proof na mga ballot box? Bumalik na lang tayo sa dating metallic na nakapinturang dilaw na ballot box, at least hindi nababasa noon," she added.

The Supreme Court sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal had earlier junked Bongbong's motion questioning the integrity of the 2016 automated polls.

The first day of the Bongbong-Robredo vote recount was marked with the former lawkmaker's report of alleged wet ballots and missing audit logs, the records that keep the timestamps of votes being fed to vote-counting machines.

Suspicion of anomalies were dismissed by a lawyer for Robredo, who said the ballots in question from Bato, Camarines Sur could have gotten wet in a December storm, and that ballot images could easily be printed.

But Imee, who was present on the recount's first day but barred on the second, is not contented, condemning what she said was flagrant, "in-your-face" cheating in the 2016 polls.

"Para sa akin, alam natin may duda lahat ng Pilipino na may level of fraud. Alam natin na may pandarayang nangyari, pero yung ganito, garapalan na ibabasa, babasagin yung balota, yung excess...tapos dudukutin yung audit logs tapos madidisappear yun dun, parang sobra naman yatang 'in your face," she said.

Bongbong lost to Robredo by over 260,000 votes.

The current manual vote recount covers ballot boxes from 5,418 clustered precincts in Bongbong's three pilot provinces: Camarines Sur, Iloilo, and Negros Oriental.

The results of this recount will determine whether his protest will proceed with the remaining 31,047 protested clustered precincts, according to the Supreme Court sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal. —NB, GMA News