FORMER Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday accused the Commission on Elections of violating the Supreme Court’s precautionary protection order (PPO) that required it to collect and preserve all necessary documents and devices pertinent to the election protest he filed against Vice President Leni Robredo.
In a manifestation, Marcos complained to the high court that on the same day it issued the order on July 12, the Comelec en banc also issued a resolution approving the recommendation of Commissioner Christian Robert Lim to back up then erase the data from vote counting machines (VCMs) and the consolidated canvassing system (CCS) laptops used during the May 9 elections.
Marcos said this was “highly irregular” coming so soon after the Court issued its protection order.
“Since the Comelec resolution stated that the stripping of the VCM and CCS laptop units ‘would be conducted starting July 16, 2016, it appears that ‘backdoor plans’ were already being made to erase the evidence needed for the election protest to prosper,” Marcos said.
“Thus, if Comelec already made plans to erase the election data four days after the public announcement of the PPO–could it be that the Comelec was trying to fast-track the stripping of election data before the PPO could officially be served on them?” the manifestation said.
Marcos also said the Comelec’s decision to limit the stripping to its Sta. Rosa, Laguna warehouse was highly suspicious, since the poll agency had six other warehouses where its machines were stored during the May elections.
“[T]he issuance of the resolution approving the backing up of the SD cards and CCS units and the subsequent stripping of the VCMs and CCS laptop units is a blatant violation of the express and clear directive of this honorable tribunal as contained in the PPO, which categorically ordered Comelec to preserve and safeguard the integrity of all the ballot boxes and their contents, voter registration records, audit and transmission logs, automated election equipment, and other documents and paraphernalia used in all the 92,509 clustered precincts nationwide,” Marcos said.
The Comelec earlier said the stripping of VCMs and CCS was necessary so that they could return the leased machines to poll technology provider Smartmatic.
But Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista said they have not yet started stripping the machines and would abide by the order of the Presidential Electoral Tribunal and the Senate Electoral Tribunal.
The Comelec chairman also said that the option to purchase the VCMs would be triggered if the machines are not returned by Dec. 1.
The stripping of the machines will involve the backing up of files from the SD cards and the hard drives of the CCS laptops.
In his manifestation, Marcos also complained that several of his witnesses were being coerced or bribed to change their testimony.
Robredo on Monday asked the Presidential Electoral Tribunal to dismiss for lack of merit the election protest filed against her by Marcos, saying PET lacks jurisdiction over the causes of action or grounds relied upon by Marcos in his protest.
In a 536-page answer to Marcos’ complaint, Robredo through lawyers Romulo Macalintal and Ma. Bernadette Sardillo said the grounds alleged in Marcos’ protest are not proper grounds for an election protest.
The Vice President said the “first part” is just practically a complaint by Marcos against the action of the Comelec in the lease of the vote counting machines from Smartmatic alleging, among others, that said machines have no record of prior use in other elections in other countries.
Her lawyers argued that this could not be a ground to contest the election of Robredo since an election protest is a contest between two candidates and not a case involving the problem between Comelec and Smartmatic.
The second part of the Marcos petition is a mere series of wild accusations, guesses, and surmises, which renders it miserably wanting in sufficiency both in form and substance, they said.
In other words, the allegations of election fraud and irregularities are “without specification and substantiation, of where and how these occurrences took place, which is a fatal omission, as it goes into the very substance of the protest,” Robredo said.
The Vice President’s lawyers also asked the Supreme Court, sitting as the PET, to throw out Marcos’ petition to annul the election results from the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao and Basilan.
She cited another Supreme Court decision that said the illegality of the ballots must affect more than 50 percent of the votes cast before the results could be annulled.