Palace confident Duterte didn’t gain from poll ‘fraud’

MALACAÑANG President Rodrigo Duterte has not the 2016 national elections.

Speaking to reporters, Palace spokesman Harry Roque over the weekend said Duterte won the presidency by a clear margin, polling nearly twice as many votes as his closest rival.

Duterte, who promised “genuine change” and campaigned on a hardline anti- crime platform, garnered 16,601,997 votes, over 6.6 million more than his closest rival, then administration candidate Manuel Roxas 2nd.

“If you are to ask some of the die-hard supporters of the President in the last elections, they feel that they got more votes. So it is votes, according to his supporters. But the President is happy with his almost six-million edge over his closest political rival,” Roque said in a news conference.

He made the statement after Sen. Vicente Sotto 3rd revealed that six national candidates benefited from the supposed cheating, including the President and the Vice President.

The Palace official said that if proven true, the mandate of those who gained from the fraud may not be voided because the alleged irregularity was exposed in a congressional inquiry, not in an electoral protest.

“Hindimaapektuhan‘yung term ngmganakaupo, except for the Vice President and the 12th seat in the Senate, dahillahatpong election protest napipwedengmagingdahilannamapatalsikangisang nakaupongopisyales,etaposnaang the Vice President and the 12th seat in the Senate, because only election protest could be used as a reason to an election protest already passed],” according to Roque.

Prior to Sotto’s revelation, former senator and 2016 losing candidate for Vice President Ferdinand protest against Vice President Maria Leonor Robredo, claiming that he has substantial evidence of alleged vote manipulation in the 2016 polls.

Roque said the outcome of any investigation of the alleged fraud was crucial for the coming midterm elections since the Commission on Elections (Comelec) will be using the same vote counting machines from poll technology provider Smartmatic.

“So if Senator Sotto’s claim that the alleged cheating came from the Smartmatic is proven true, we should all know the truth because later it could lead to another fraud during the next elections,” he said.

“The President has said, while he’s the President, he will not allow any fraud during elections,”

Citing an “impeccably reliable” source, Sotto on Tuesday bared the alleged manipulation of the automated elections that resulted in some candidates receiving zero vote in some precincts.

In his privilege speech, he asked the Senate to probe two of the source’s allegations, which included the early transmission of votes and the access of a United States-based computing service to the poll servers.

The Comelec, in response to the revelation, said it would conduct its own investigation of the matter.

Meanwhile, Roque was con the alleged election fraud would be reliable.

“Yes of course (it will be a reliable probe) because anytime now, the President will appoint two commissioners. And I understand, there will be a third vacancy. So the President will have appointed three commissioners before the conduct of the next elections and it’s a different Comelec altogether,” he said.

“[I am happy that the Comelec accepted the Palace’s dare, and it said it would investigate all the new information bared by Senator Sotto in the Senate],” Roque added.