The truth cannot be left unspoken given what is at stake is our future and the future of our country. - BONG BONG
MARCOS
Bongbong declines Bam's dare to present proof of cheating
Vice presidential candidate Sen.
Ferdinand “
Bongbong” Marcos on Monday slammed the
Commission on Elections (
Comelec) over its alleged inaction on various complaints of electoral fraud.
In a privilege speech during the resumption of the
Senate session,
Marcos said the Comelec “is turning a blind eye to the quantum of proof” allegedly showing cheating country during the recently concluded elections.
“Every day netizens post new photos and videos of election fraud.
Police found thousands of pre-shaded ballots in an abandoned warehouse in
Alaminos, Pangasinan. Unused
SD cards were found in a trash can in Kabangkalan,
Negros Occidental. There is video of election fraud in
Datu Ampatuan, Maguindanao,” Marcos said.
“And yet, Comelec has done nothing,” he added.
Marcos said the Comelec must initiate investigation on various reports of election fraud instead of pre-occupying itself to the immediate proclamation of winners.
“Netizens were able to capture footage and other evidence of cheating and other abhorrent election offenses from different parts of the archipelago… I have to ask myself: why is
COMELEC turning a blind eye to the quantum of proof that is before them?” Marcos said.
“They would rather concentrate on immediate proclamation (of winners) in the hope that the uproar will die down soon after,” Marcos added.
Systems audit
Marcos lamented that the Comelec has not even “noted” the letter of request that he sent to the poll body last week, asking for a full audit of the its systems following a change in the script by automations service provider Smartmatic to the transparency server during transmission.
“
Last week, I formally wrote to Comelec and personally asked them to allow my IT experts to examine their servers. I made sure each and every
Commissioner was given a copy of my request. Not one of them has replied to my request… it has not even been ‘noted,’” Marcos said.
Marcos’ camp had insinuated that the introduction of the new script might have affected the counting of votes.
“It was after this particular act of computer programming wizardry that votes for this representation started to slow down and the votes for another candidate started to accelerate -- at an unprecedented and linear rate of 45,
000 votes for every additional one percent of votes counted,” Marcos said apparently referring to Robredo.
The Comelec, Smartmatic, and poll watchdog groups have said that the script did not change the results. Smartmatic earlier stated that the script of the transparency server was tweaked only to correct the “?” character into the ñ character in the names of some candidates.
In his privilege speech, however, Marcos, maintained that the Smartmatic and Comelec’s claim must be proven through the audit of the servers, as the breach in the system supposedly compromises the integrity of the counting of votes.
“We should not accept on mere blind faith the representations of the contractor and reflected data on their machines.
The burden of proof should be upon them (Smartmatic), and Comelec as well, that the integrity of the system was not compromised,” Marcos said.
Marcos also questioned the timing of the introduction of the script in the Comelec servers.
“
Note that this change was done not before the elections, not when they were doing the pre-testing, but during the transmission of results from our canvassing boards nationwide,” Marcos pointed out.
System audit
Meanwhile, Robredo's counsel
Romulo Macalintal hit the proposal of Marcos' camp for a system audit of the entire election as a
sign that Marcos has no concrete evidence to back his claim of fraud since he is fishing for evidence.
“He has no evidence in his possession to prove that there were errors or irregularities in the past election that affected the votes for president and vice president
... If you ask for a system audit, it means that you are fishing for evidence,” Macalintal said.
Macalintal said Marcos is basically asking the Comelec to develop the case for him. He added Marcos and his legal team must instead focus on the evidence and not on speculations.
“You have to rely on the strength of your evidence and not on speculations and asking (Comelec) to provide the evidence for you,” Macalintal said. -
http://www.gmanetwork.com/
- published: 23 May 2016
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