Marcos loyalists sue Comelec

Marcos loyalists Oliver Lozano and disqualified presidential aspirant Danilo Lihaylihay have filed a civil case before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Quezon City yesterday against the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and other parties involved in the alleged cheating of vice presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

In a five-page petition, Lozano and Lihayhay accused Comelec of conspiring with Smartmatic International, National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) to ensure Marcos’ close rival in the vice-presidential race, Camarines Sur Third district representative Leni Robredo wins in the polls.

“The Defendants conspired by direct participation and indispensable cooperation to cheat the electorate in favor of Vice-Presidential candidate Leni Robredo,” the petition dated May 13, 2016 said.

Both complainants was referring to the controversial decision of a Smartmatic personnel of changing the hash-code of the transparency server used by Comelec on the evening of May 9, 2016 in collecting the results of the recently elections.

After the incident, Marcos’s camp claimed that was the only time Robredo was able to overtake him in Comelec partial and unofficial tally for the vicepresidential race.

Smartmatic earlier admitted of com- mitting alteration, but stressed it was only for cosmetic purposes and did not affect the results of the elections. Comelec announced yesterday it will initiate an investigation on the matter, which it said was a “breach of its protocol.”