PPCRV dares whistle-blowers: Polls credible, present proof

MANILA, Philippines—As tales of fraud multiply, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) Wednesday reiterated that the nation’s first automated elections on May 10 were credible, saying that it found only minute discrepancies in its validation of election results.

“There is no systematic attempt of fraud. If there were any attempts at all, they were not able to get through,” PPCRV chair Henrietta de Villa said at a press conference.

De Villa challenged whistle-blowers to prove their claims. “They should be the ones to present evidence. They should also be arrested and held accountable,” she said.

De Villa, however, said that charges supported by proof should be investigated “so we can maintain the credibility of the elections.”

She said the electorate “should become mature enough to be able to distinguish” between charges that have sufficient basis and “wild accusations.”

PPCRV spokesperson Ana de Villa-Singson said a one-on-one comparison of electronically transmitted results and manually audited printouts of election returns (ERs) from some 43,035 precincts nationwide showed discrepancies only in 29 precincts.

The precincts with discrepancies accounted for less than a tenth of a percent of the total number of precincts that the PPCRV analyzed and represented some 17,000 votes in different locations across the country.

“We’re not noticing any pattern at all. They’re in very different areas. And the incidents are really very small. It will be difficult for us to make a pattern out of 0.07 percent,” Singson said.

In Bacolod City, except for a few negligible discrepancies, the random manual audit of the votes from five clustered precincts matched the tally made by the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines on Election Day, said Bayan Muna-Negros chair Alejandro Deoma.

The random manual audit was done on the votes for president, vice president, congressman and mayor.

Howard Calleja, PPCRV legal chief, said the findings would be elevated to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for investigation and data reconciliation.

“There’s no pattern. We will be forwarding this for Comelec to investigate and look at but at this point we cannot conclude any fraud. The conclusions will be done after a thorough investigation,” Calleja said.

As part of its parallel count, the PPCRV compared results for national candidates from two sources—figures electronically transmitted from PCOS machines and consolidated through a data server, and ERs printed out before transmission.
Its analysis included 43,035 ERs and their corresponding electronic results, a sample that comprises 56.04 percent of the total number of precincts nationwide.

Discrepancies found as of midnight Tuesday included ERs and electronic results that did not match.

Zero vote

Four precincts including one each in Bacoor and Imus in Cavite, Rodriguez in Rizal and Mandaue City transmitted results with no votes for candidates while ERs contained the number of voters who cast their ballots.

Some 19 precincts showed double- to triple-digit votes in ERs while transmitted results showed single-digit figures. Such discrepancies were noted in one precinct each in Pampanga and Sarangani, two in Cavite, three each in Laguna and Cebu, and nine in Metro Manila.

For instance, a printed ER from a precinct in Commonwealth, Quezon City, reflected 394 votes for leading presidential candidate Benigno Aquino III but the transmitted results counted only 8, Singson said.

Higher figures

Four precincts showed higher figures in their electronic tallies but single-digit votes in the printed ERs. The precincts are in San Fernando City, West Kamias in Quezon City, Roxas City and Marulas in Valenzuela.

In the Roxas City incident, the printed ER counted just five votes for Aquino while the transmitted results tallied 309 votes.

Two other precincts, one in Calauag, Quezon and Taguig, showed a one-point difference in votes for certain candidates.
Automate future elections

With the council’s findings, De Villa set aside suspicion of fraud. She said the poll watchdog, a Comelec-accredited citizens’ arm, would recommend that future elections be automated.

“Without a doubt we will recommend that we go on automating our elections until the time that the culture of the Filipino voter and the maturity desired for have been reached,” she said.

In Bacolod City, the random manual audit began at about 2 p.m. and ended at past 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

Deoma, who monitored the random count by five sets of board of election inspectors, said the precincts covered were No. 169 in Handumanan, No. 76 (Barangay 39) at Education Training Center School, No. 173 at Mandalagan Elementary School, No. 23 (Barangay 9) at Andres Bonifacio Elementary School, and No. 31 (Barangay 14) at Rizal Elementary School.

Same number of votes

Mayoral candidates Evelio Leonardia and Monico Puentevella got the same votes in the manual audit and the tallies by the PCOS machine—295 and 242 votes, respectively, in Precinct No. 31.

Based on the data showed by Deoma, the results for the four other precincts showed a discrepancy of one to three votes for both candidates.

Leonardia was reelected mayor for a third term with 93,519 votes, ahead of Puentevella’s 86,258.

No audit for party-list groups

Deoma lamented that the random manual audit did not include the votes for the party-list groups. He lodged a complaint with Bacolod City Election Officer Ryan Castro.

“We were like second class citizens,” said Deoma, who was disappointed with the noninclusion of the party-list groups in the audit.

Deoma noted that it was clear from the ballots he saw during the random manual audit that many of the voters did not know how to vote under the new automated system.

Voter education

In some instances, the voters voted for numerous presidential candidates or party-list groups, when they were only supposed to vote for one of each, he added.

He suggested that the Comelec conduct more education campaigns on the automated voting system and to inform voters that they should vote for only one party-list group. –Tarra Quismundo, Carla Gomez, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Inquirer Visayas