Group calls for CF cards inventory

THE accredited citizens’ arm of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is encouraging the poll body to conduct an inventory of the compact flash (CF) cards amid reports that some of them have been destroyed and replaced by candidates in the May 13 polls.

In a radio interview, Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) chairperson Henrietta de Villa said it would be best if the Comelec would have an inventory of the almost 78,000 CF cards to find out if there is any unit missing or replaced.

“Ang aming sinabi, hindi investigate, kundi magbigay ng inventory ng CF cards. Kasi dun mo malalaman kung mayroong posibilidad na may pinalitan o kinuha,” said de Villa over Churchrun Radio Veritas.

She said that while there have yet to be any proven case, the possibility remains, thus requiring action from the Comelec.

“Kailangan mag-imben- taryo ng CF cards, kasi ang CF cards ay nabibili naman yan sa labas kaya pwede nga palitan yung sa PCOS (Precinct Count Optical Scan),” said de Villa.

Earlier, reports surfaced that several candidates had blocked or destroyed some CF cards supposedly in a bid to corrupt the election results stored in it.

In a related development, Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes has admitted that there are some discrepancies that were found in the ongoing random manual audit (RMA) of the May 13 polls.

“Meron naman discrepancies kaya nga sine-segregate na sila ngayon e,” said Brillantes noting that 180 of the 234 RMAs have already been reported to the RMA Committee (RMAC).

He, however, could not provide any details of the supposed discrepancies, saying that he is still waiting for the initial report from Commissioner Christian Lim, who is the commissioner-in-charge of the RMAC.

“Wala pang initial report. (But) we agreed to come out after ma-complete,” said Brillantes.

Republic Act 9369 or the Poll Automation Law states that there should be RMA conducted in one precinct in each of the 234 congressional districts randomly chosen by the RMAC.

It can be recalled that in its 2010 report, the RMAC revealed that the variance showed between the manual and computer count of the results of the national and local elections was no more than one percent.

Based on the 2010 report, the total variances of 2,653 in the votes for president was only .49 percent of the 5,409 while the difference in the vice presidential votes was lower with 2,180 votes or .40 percent.