SO THE PEOPLE WILL KNOW
We, citizens of the Philippines and residents of Dinalupihan, Bataan, as private individuals and as members of people's organizations, call on the COMELEC to immediately a) investigate the shocking anomalies that were recently discovered during the manual count of votes in Dinalupihan, Bataan, b) punish the culprits, and c) undertake measures that will prevent the repetition of these irregularities. After all, it has been six (6) months since eight (8) bundles of wrapped ballots were found inside the office of the Municipal Election Officer.
For the information of the public, here is what happened in the election protest for the 2013 polls in Dinalupihan:
1. The manual recount of votes in our municipality, as ordered by the COMELEC, started on April 20, 2015 under the supervision of the Regional Trial Court and witnessed by revisors from both Protestant Jose Alejandre Payumo III and Protestee/proclaimed Mayor, Maria Angela Garcia.
2. On the very first day of the manual recount, eight (8) bundles of neatly and uniformly wrapped ballots from three (3) clustered precincts of Barangays Kataasan, J.C. Payumo, Jr. and Tucop were discovered on the open shelves inside the office of Municipal Election Officer! As expected, the ballot boxes for these precincts were found empty in the storage room under the custody of the Municipal Treasurer's office, located 30 meters away!
3. Every day, thereafter, as the ballot boxes in question were opened, the boxes revealed bundles of neatly wrapped ballots in brown wrapping paper, some with markings and seal of the COMELEC.
4. In a close election, it is enough to tamper with one (1) or two (2) precincts for a candidate to win but the perpetrators found it necessary to include seventy-eight (78) of the total eighty (80) ballot boxes in their operations! Indeed, nearly all ballot boxes contained neatly taped bundles of uniformly wrapped ballots! The joke that went around town was either it was an automatic wrapping machine or some resident elves inside the ballot boxes who wrapped the ballots as forty-six (46) BEI Chairmen filed judicial affidavit attesting that they had nothing to do with the wrapped ballots. Indeed, they neither had the time nor reason to do so. The questions that now beg to be answered are: Who wrapped the ballots, and why? If the PCOS count was accurate and hack-proof as claimed, why the need for the cover up operations? Who was responsible for the obviously fraudulent substitute ballots? Who had the motive, the means and the opportunity to do it?
5. In two (2) clustered precincts (Barangays Luacan and Bangal), 158 and 121 consecutive ballots, respectively, were found with patterned votes for positions from Congressman all the way down to Sangguniang Bayan and Party list.
6. In two (2) clustered precincts (Barangays Sta. Isabel and Bangal), the ballots bore neither signature nor initials of the BEI Chairman. But the two Chairmen had executed judicial affidavit that they had signed the ballots and that it was impossible for them to have missed
signing that many. 7. The percentage of variance or discrepancy between the manual and PCOS counts had reached double digit for all candidates other than the contested mayoralty post, i. e. from Congressman down to Councilors. The variance are : 1.34% for Mayor, 10.83% for Vice-Mayor, 2.97% for Governor, 2.66% for Vice-Governor, 10.43 % for Congressman, 22.59% for Board Members, and 62.01 % for Councilors! The maximum variance allowed for the automated election is only .005% or one (1) error for every 20,000 marks.
It is clear that the substitute ballots were part of an elaborate cover-up so that the manual count would match the PCOS count that was either pre-programmed or hacked! But, as in most ignoble schemes, the perpetrators have left behind glaring evidence of the crime: they failed to take out the wrapping paper in 78 out of 80 ballot boxes, and they only endeavored to match the manual and PCOS counts for the Mayoralty post. They did not expect that the Court would allow the photocopying of the ballots which showed huge variances for the other candidates.
8. None of the above evidences of irregularity that were presented to the Regional Trial Court had been refuted by Protestee Garcia.
9. But on July 21, 2015, or three (3) months after the RTC had commenced with the manual count, the Supreme Court, on a technicality, reversed COMELEC and upheld the earlier RTC decision that the protest was filed one (1) day late! This effectively stopped the people's search for truth.
WE NOW ASK THESE QUESTIONS:
Why has there been no investigation by the COMELEC on the discovered irregularities, starting with the Municipal Election Officer, considering that eight (8) bundles of wrapped ballots were found inside his office?
Did it occur to the Supreme Court that it is covering the anomalies that the world has already seen? (Yes, netizens among Bataeños living abroad have expressed shock when they saw on social media the photos you are seeing below).
Should technicality prevail over a liberal interpretation of the law that will resolve who really were elected by the electorate, a position that the Supreme Court had, time and again, upheld because it is imbued with public interest? Did the Supreme Court decision nullify the Court proceedings ab initio, and if so, should the electorate of Dinalupihan now re-wrap the ballots, insert them back into the ballot boxes, lock and seal the boxes, and pretend that what they had seen were mere hallucination?
Since the COMELEC had awarded the contract for the 2016 Elections again to Smartmatic, what safeguards have been installed, if any, that were not present in the 2013 Elections? Unless the safeguards are clearly demonstrated to the public, we are afraid that honest candidates will hesitate to join in the next elections, given what had happened in Dinalupihan, Bataan. And voters are now asking why they should go to the polls if their votes will not be counted anyway?
This is an issue that bears down on us all-on how we are to be governed. The Napoles scam is a heinous crime that involves big money, but still, it is just a finite sum of money. For us, the tearing apart of the fabric of our institution that rests on clean, transparent and credible elections is a case far worse. It is fatal to our democracy; it is fatal to truth, and it is fatal to justice.