THE camp of Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said that they will continue to search for the truth over the results of the May 9 elections and blamed President Benigno Aquino III for the cheating in Mindanao that was attested to by witnesses.
“As far as Bongbong Marcos is concerned, the fight is not over,” said Marcos’ campaign adviser Abakada party-list Rep. Jonathan dela Cruz. “We have to continue asking for a systems audit. We have to search for the truth, and that is important.”
Dela Cruz said the Commission on Elections has not yet explained some 3.5 million undervotes and while the number may not matter in the presidential race which President-apparent Rodrigo Duterte won by a landslide, the number is a game-changer in the vice presidential race.
Dela Cruz said there is no more reason for the Comelec not to act on the request of Marcos for a systems audit of the transparency and central servers because the congressional canvassing has been concluded.
Dela Cruz said Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo, who was declared winner of the election on Friday by a margin of 263,473 votes, may even resign if she finds out what really happened.
“If she sees what happened, she may resign. She knows. I am sure Malacañang, the Liberal Party know in their hearts they did something that violated the sovereign will of the people,” Dela Cruz said.
Dela Cruz said it is normal for the LP to downplay the issue of the undervotes although the number of votes can make a difference in the vice presidential race and at least three Senate seats.
“It is understandable for them to downplay that claim. They are vulnerable. We’re expecting that all issues that we have been raised will be set aside, but we will prove to them what was really happened. We all know that the real opponent here is the President,” Dela Cruz said.
He recalled that during the 30th anniversary of Edsa People Power, Aquino campaigned against Marcos and vowed never to allow a Marcos to return to Malacañang.
Marcos’ lawyer George Garcia said the public also has the right to know why there was such a high number of undervotes for the position of vice president, which totaled about 3.2 million for the first two days of the official canvass.
He explained that they arrived at the figure by deducting the total number of votes for the position of vice president from the total number of votes cast.
“It’s true that some voters opted not to vote for a certain position and that’s normal. But take note of the percentage, that’s 3.2 million voters who did not vote for vice president,” said Garcia.
With such a hotly-contested election and the high voter turnout of over 80 percent, Garcia said the high number of undervotes should be explained. He said areas where large number of undervotes occurred were in the Visayas and Mindanao.
Dela Cruz reiterated the Marcos’ legal team will file electoral protest on the matter, even as they demand that the Smartmatic be banned from future elections.
Dela Cruz earlier said “the integrity of the whole 2016 elections is on the line here and we do not want unresolved questions and issues to linger after the proclamation.”
Already, the group Solidarity for Sovereignty rejected the results of the elections because the Comelec had supposedly abdicated its mandate to hold honest and credible elections.
“Our Constitution states only Comelec has authority to conduct elections but the Comelec turned over its mandate to Smartmatic,” the group said in a statement.
“The Comelec also ignored the SC’s order to enable the security features of the Precinct Count Optical Scanner, or the PCOS Vote Counting Machine such as the digital signatures of BEI’s, security ballot paper, watermarking, ultra-violet ballot authenticator, vote confirmation receipt, and others to ensure the integrity of the vote.
“Nor was the source code before and after the elections, ever provided. Many other cases filed for the nullification of that election remain unresolved to this day.’’