Groups hold protest action vs Comelec, poll body maintains no election fraud occurred

Several progressive groups held a protest action Friday to question the Commission on Elections’ conduct of the May 9 polls, while the poll body stressed that no fraud had transpired, citing reports from election watchdogs themselves.

Among the groups that trooped near the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC), where the Comelec sitting as National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) is tallying the votes for the senatoriables and party-list groups, were Partido Lakas ng Masa, Sanlakas, and Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino .

Atty. Luke Espiritu, who led the protest, claimed that fraud took place in the May 9 polls, stressing that Comelec “failed miserably” in preventing vote buying and excessive election spending.

He also said the malfunctioning vote counting machines (VCMs) during the elections could be another way for the fraud to ensue, particularly from the camp of election frontrunner Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

“The only way that you could prevent fraud is for the Comelec to be efficient and to be able to perform its functions na walang glitch. Eh for the Comelec to do that na merong glitch, then the presumption should be merong fraud that ganyan ang konteksto natin eh. You could not assume clean elections under a trapo setup, especially under Bongbong Marcos as the candidate,” Espiritu said.

“Itong Marcos regime na uupo, ito ay bunga hindi ng demokrasya, ito ay bunga ng pagbabalahura ng ating demokraysa kung saan minamanipulate ang masang Pilipino at minamanipulate ang ating electoral process,” he added.

(The Marcos regime was not a result of democracy, but a result of disrespecting our democracy where the Filipino masses and our electoral process are manipulated.)

Comelec Commissioner George Garcia on Friday noted at least 1,800 VCMs and SD cards were deemed defective on the May 9 polls in a total of 1,867 polling precincts.

On the other hand, acting Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco refuted the cheating allegations and stressed that all the poll body’s proceedings for the recently conducted elections were transparent.

“We could proudly state, wala pong dayaan na naganap (no cheating transpired). The credibility of the elections is there,” he said.

He also asked the public to listen to the statements of election watchdogs such as the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE), and National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL).

The PPCRV on Thursday reported a 100% match between the 16,820 election returns it has processed and the tally in the transparency media server for the 2022 elections.

Meanwhile, LENTE on Tuesday allayed fears of some voters regarding the fast vote transmission for the 2022 elections, saying it is "normal and not suspicious."

“This shows the credibility of these watchdogs and their statements are aligning with our statements. Kaya sana ang hiling natin sa ating mga kababayan, pabayaan niyo pong matapos at magawa ng Comelec ang aming trabaho. Lahat naman po ito, nakabukas sa publiko, lahat naman po ng kilos namin ay transparent at binabantayan,” Laudiangco said.

“Makinig po tayo sa data. 'Wag po tayong makinig sa sabi-sabi. Kung tayo lamang ay makikinig sa impormasyon, pwedeng bang i-vet natin sa credible na sources,” he added.

(We ask the public to let the Comelec finish and do its job. All of this is open to the public and all of our actions are transparent and are being monitored. Let's listen to the data and not the rumors. If we just listen to information, I hope we can vet them from credible sources.)

As of 2:32 p.m. on Friday, Marcos was still leading the partial and unofficial count of votes with 31,104,175 votes.

Meanwhile, his running mate Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte also maintains a huge lead among vice presidential candidates with 31,561,948 votes as of the same period.

A total of 55,197,306 votes out of the 67,442,616 registered voters have already come in as of posting. A total of 98.35% of the election returns have been processed so far.—AOL, GMA News