Technology may have aided us to achieve a transparent and credible election, may have also halted “dagdag- bawas” culture among election officers. Lesser manpower in the election process may have diminished incidence of discrepancies and anomaly. But what seems to be a reliable gift from modernity became a high- tech tool for newer dirty tactics and worse, mockery of democracy.
Many protests had already been filed and just recently, another petition was added to the pile of complaints prior to various discrepancies in the latest automated election that had happened in our history.
The Confederation of Non- stock Savings and Loan Association (CONSLA) filed a petition on intervention at the Supreme Court as to summon the judiciary with due process to what they tagged as ‘mockery and insult of the May 9, 2016 National Election’.
The petition on intervention filed by CONSLA is just a support to existing cases filed before, that aims to solicit explanations from the Commission on what really happened, said Ronald Dominguez of CONSLA.
The partylist, which is one of the 115 accredited groups by the Commission on Elections (Comelec), evoke their 342, 082 missing votes that made them rank 54th in the final tally.
In totality, they garnered 213, 814 votes, an obviously huge difference from 555, 896 votes, that may have help them to rank at the 14th spot, reflected from the quick count made by PPCRV on May 10, 2016 at 12 noon.
The final tally was also said to be far fewer from the unofficial count of PPCRV even in the first two days of canvassing.
From an affidavit sworn by Buhay partylist candidate Arnold Arriola, a photo of PPCRV quick count at 10:40 pm of May 9 already shows a total of 342, 513 votes.
The quick count could be unofficial but it may have not generated counts far greater from reality. The difference from the official tally of the Comelec and the PPCRV’s quick count may have been a big question mark as to where the difference goes and on where the failure occur, whether it is the negligence of the commission or by the citizen’s arm to make the unofficial tally.
The last tally must reflect either closely similar to the unofficial tally or greater, but not lesser than that. There is no such thing as negative votes, Dominguez added.
Consla already asked PPCRV on what happened at their tally posted on their Twitter feeds in reel time. Representatives failed to address their concern but more so, just reply to them blaming their connectivity issues and the error on having too many volunteers.
“There seems to be a concerted effort to conceal what actually transpired on election day; a very real effort to suppress the truth!” said CONSLA partylist in a paid advertisement published in many leading broadsheets.
As much as CONSLA refuse to think that there is a plot to rob their seat in Congress, but as signed access cards by Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista were already given to them as one of the party list- elect at the day of proclamation, why is there no affirmation?
The partylist didn’t file any complaint, instead of, just requesting the Comelec to conduct an investigation on PPCRV’s quick count, to settle inquiries regarding discrepancies as a slice of their mandate to the people. (Ace Palaganas)
