(EAGLE NEWS) — Supporters of presidential candidate and Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte expressed apprehensions about massive electoral cheating on election day, May 9, as reports about vote-counting machines (VCM) mysteriously counting a vote for administration candidate Manuel “Mar” Roxas II for blank ballots during a machine testing in Lanao del Sur.
The group called MRRD-NECC or Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte National Executive Coordinating Committee said two of their election watchers tried the vote counting machine in Barangay Tamparan, Lanao del Sur during the VCM testing on May 5. And they were very much surprised that when they fed a ballot with no shade for any presidential candidate, the VCM issued a receipt for a Roxas vote.
The watcher, interviewed by media, said she only voted for local candidates and deliberately left blank the positions for President and for senators.
But the VCM automatically counted a vote for Roxas and a vote for senators who were mostly from the administration’s Liberal Party. She repeated the process again, and the VCM came out with the same “automatic Roxas vote.”
This is highly unusual and very disturbing, said a lawyer from the MRRD-NECC, Atty. Carim Panumpang.
“The testing and supposed sealing of VCM (vote counting machines) produced the following: una na po yung isang watcher natin pinasubok na bumoto sa isang machine sa kanilang Barangay, Tamparan precint number 39a and b. Nakita po ang lumabas ay si Roxas at dala-dala (niya ang) resibo. Di (siya) bumoto ng presidente pero lumabas Mar Roxas ibinotong presidente. Di rin bumoto sa senador pero may filled up senatorial slates most of them are from Liberal Party. (First, one of our watchers tried to vote using one of the machines in their barangay, Tamparan, precinct number 39a and b. What can be seen here and what came out was [a vote for] Roxas and she brought the receipt. She did not vote for any president but what came out was a vote for Mar Roxas as president. She also did not vote for any senator, but what came out was a filled-up senatorial slate most of them from the Liberal Party),” explained Panumpang.
He said they have been receiving similar complaints from other precincts in Lanao del Sur, where a vote for Duterte during the vote-counting machine testing became an automatic “Roxas vote.”
The lawyer revealed they have received similar complaints from overseas voters.
Martin Diño, also from the MRRD-NECC, said they plan to file a complaint-report with the Commission on Elections because of this “automatic Roxas votes” during VCM tests.
They will also include the reports of similar incidents during the voting of Duterte supporters abroad.
“What’s happening abroad is already happening here. We will document everything and we will file a case,” Diño said.
The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) said it would investigate the complaints.
COMELEC chairman Andres Bautista said he had already directed the poll body’s field offices to look into the matter.
“Well, kaagad pinapatingnan natin sa ating COMELEC field para agarang tingnan kung may katotohanan. Kung ako ang tatanungin mo, iyan ang pinakamalaking kasalanan sa isang halalan — na ililipat mo ang boto ni candidate x kay candidate y. Iyan ay dagdag-bawas na ayaw nating mangyari. (Well, we immediately ordered the Comelec field office to verify this. If you will ask me, that is the biggest sin you can commit during elections – that you will transfer a vote for Candidate X to Candidate Y. That is dagdag-bawas which we don’t want to happen),” the COMELEC chairman said.
The poll body also admitted receiving similar reports from Mati, Davao Oriental, and in Lanao and Cagayan. (with a report from Aily Millo, Eagle News Service)