Errors in CoCs found in 57 provinces, NCR

Smartmatic’s counting system blamed; debugging urged

At least 57 provinces as well as cities of the National Capital Region (NCR) were found to have erroneous certificates of canvass on account of these being the CoCs based on final testing and sealing (FTS) returns, not the May 10 returns.

This confusion, the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) said yesterday, is attributed to Smartmatic’s erroneous counting system used for the May 10 synchronized elections.

CenPEG IT Fellow, Dr. Pablo Manalastas, shared this explanation in response to Thursday’s debate at the joint congressional canvassing committee triggered by the submission of two CoCs, one of which was the corrected version. But the confusion prompted the joint committee to defer the canvassing for Bacolod.

As a result, Manalastas said, both the Commission Elections (Comelec) and Congress should now debug all CoCs that incorporated FTS results. Data extracted from Comelec’s website http://electionresults.comelec. gov.ph showed at least 57 provinces and cities have this problem, he said.

Manalastas hastened to add, however, that “the committee actually has a much bigger problem, namely, the fact that many cities and provinces had FTS election returns included in their

CoCs, and these cities and provinces have not yet submitted reconciliation CoCs.”

He said this problem resulted from the failure of the Smartmatic’s counting and canvassing system (CCS) program to reject the invalid CoCs and accept only the valid ones. The Smartmatic CCS program was not subjected to a testing and certification in accordance with Philippine election laws, despite the SysTest testing and certifications issued by Comelec’s Technical Evaluation Committee, Manalastas said.

Despite these flawed CoCs that have been canvassed, the new president and vice president may be known by mid next week, in time for the commemoration of the country’s Independence Day.

Senators, sitting in the National Board of Canvassers (NBoC) yesterday assured that the president-elect and vice president-elect will be proclaimed simultaneously either by Tuesday or Wednesday.

This, despite pleadings and posturing by the camp of Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas, Liberal Party (LP) vice presidential candidate, contesting the estimated three million “null votes,” to have these audited by the NBoC.

“We will dispose of that (motion) because some of those raised in those pleadings are matters that can only be handled by opening the ballot boxes.

“In a canvassing process you cannot open the ballots. Only the electoral tribunals can open the ballot boxes. Only they can go to the ballots. The canvassers do not go to the ballots,” said Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile.

“There’s no reason not to proclaim both, as far as I know there is no major issue left to delay the proclamation of one or the other,” he added.

The NBoC is set to resume on Monday afternoon the canvassing of the five remaining CoCs coming from Mt. Province, Bacolod City, Davao City, Eastern Samar and Lanao del Sur estimated to be between 1.4 to 1.5 million votes, which is believed to spell a difference in the standings in the vice presidential race of Roxas and Jejomar Binay of the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP).

“The difference is only about a little over 600,000 and of course not all of the remaining votes will go to one candidate. We do not know the ratios although what I heard is that Binay won very big in Davao City, I think. That’s a big bloc of votes. Roxas also won very big in Bacolod . So we do not know how much each one garnered in Eastern Samar and Mountain Province and Lanao del Sur which are still to be tabulated,” said Enrile.

“The earliest we could proclaim is on Tuesday, the latest, Wednesday,” said Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, pointing out the preparation of the committee report could take some time.

“We’re hoping that we could finish our job yesterday and instruct the committee to prepare the report over the weekend but it didn’t happen so we’ll be back by Monday and I don’t think they can work on the report overnight. Again we will try our best. Best efforts will see proclamation by Tuesday proclamation, or Wednesday,” Zubiri said.

Enrile echoed the same, in a separate interview, pointing out that if they there will be no more hitches, the proclamation can take place the following day or after the last canvassing day.

“So far there’s no major problem about the canvassing for both president and vice president. So I think by next week we will finish the whole thing, both the (canvassing for) president and vice president,” he said.

Enrile emphasized that Roxas’ issue on the so-called null votes will have to be taken to the presidential electoral tribunal (PET).

“We cannot nullify any votes. We cannot nullify any votes but we cannot include votes that are not sent to us for canvassing,” he said.

Amid the insistence of Roxas’ camp to count the null votes in the May 10, 2010 election, Binay yesterday said that the contentious “null votes” is a non-issue that should not be talked about.

According to Binay counsel Aquilino “Coco” Pimentel, there were 8.2 million null votes in the 2004 presidential elections, but Fernando Poe Jr. and Loren Legarda did not make an issue out of it when they filed their election protests because what is important are “counted votes.”

“In 2004, there were 3.1 million null votes for president and 5.1 million null votes for vice president but Senator Loren Legarda, when she filed a protest pointed to the votes counted and not to the null votes because it is the right of the people to abstain from voting,” Pimentel said.

Pimentel said that null votes are either the result of over voting or abstaining, which is the right of every voter. He added that in an election, the winner is determined by the most number of valid votes counted.

At the same time, the Binay camp asked Roxas to stop using the name of FPJ, saying that the Roxas group was part of the Arroyo administration coalition that suppressed the presentation of evidence of poll fraud during the 2004 elections.

Another Binay lawyer, Sandy Coronel, also urged Roxas “to be gentleman enough” and accept the judgment of the people instead of making unsubstantiated charges that could even undermine the victory of his running mate, Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino.

In any elections, there will really be instances where a candidate will lose in a province. Mayor Binay lost in certain provinces like Pampanga but he has been gentleman enough to acknowledge this. Candidates should not be angry if the people do not vote for them. We hope that all candidates will be man enough to accept and respect the mandate and the decision of the people,” Coronel told the members of the joint canvassing committee Thursday.

Pimentel said contrary to statements made by the camp of Roxas, large percentages of null votes are not only prevalent in Roxas bailiwicks.

The Binay camp also reacted to statements made by Liberal Party (LP) Secretary General Butch Abad where the name of FPJ was mentioned in connection with the Hello Garci controversy in 2004.

Abad said FPJ complained about high voting percentages in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in the 2004 elections, which the LP claims is a possible indication of vote padding in the region.

But the Binay camp reminded the group of Abad of their silence during the canvassing of votes in the 2004 elections, when documents and concrete proof of election fraud were being presented on behalf of FPJ.

“It is not surprising that Mar Roxas and Butch Abad remained quiet in 2004 since they were allied with Mrs. Arroyo. We must also remember that at that time it was Mayor Jojo Binay who stood by and supported FPJ,” lawyer JV Bautista said.

Bautista also debunked the so-called analysis by an expert, Anton Bonifacio, presented by LP.

“Analysis is not fact, nor is it concrete evidence. If they believe they have concrete evidence of election irregularities, then they should file the proper complaint at the proper venue. Otherwise, what the LP has presented is just propaganda masquerading as expert analysis,” Bautista said.

He said if the LP have been more truthful, they would have also studied the voting behavior for both president and vice president instead of focusing on the vice presidential results. They should also drill down to consider the voting aptters for governor and vice governor and mayor and vice mayor.

For his part, Pimentel said the poor performance of Roxas in Maguindanao can be explained by the fact the province is a stronghold of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) which campaigned against Roxas.

“The zero votes are possible at precinct level, especially if the precinct happens to be in MILF territory,” he said. –Smartmatic’s counting system blamed; debugging urged

Errors in CoCs found in 57 provinces, NCR

By Angie M. Rosales

06/05/2010

At least 57 provinces as well as cities of the National Capital Region (NCR) were found to have erroneous certificates of canvass on account of these being the CoCs based on final testing and sealing (FTS) returns, not the May 10 returns.

This confusion, the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) said yesterday, is attributed to Smartmatic’s erroneous counting system used for the May 10 synchronized elections.

CenPEG IT Fellow, Dr. Pablo Manalastas, shared this explanation in response to Thursday’s debate at the joint congressional canvassing committee triggered by the submission of two CoCs, one of which was the corrected version. But the confusion prompted the joint committee to defer the canvassing for Bacolod.

As a result, Manalastas said, both the Commission Elections (Comelec) and Congress should now debug all CoCs that incorporated FTS results. Data extracted from Comelec’s website http://electionresults.comelec. gov.ph showed at least 57 provinces and cities have this problem, he said.

Manalastas hastened to add, however, that “the committee actually has a much bigger problem, namely, the fact that many cities and provinces had FTS election returns included in their

CoCs, and these cities and provinces have not yet submitted reconciliation CoCs.”

He said this problem resulted from the failure of the Smartmatic’s counting and canvassing system (CCS) program to reject the invalid CoCs and accept only the valid ones. The Smartmatic CCS program was not subjected to a testing and certification in accordance with Philippine election laws, despite the SysTest testing and certifications issued by Comelec’s Technical Evaluation Committee, Manalastas said.

Despite these flawed CoCs that have been canvassed, the new president and vice president may be known by mid next week, in time for the commemoration of the country’s Independence Day.

Senators, sitting in the National Board of Canvassers (NBoC) yesterday assured that the president-elect and vice president-elect will be proclaimed simultaneously either by Tuesday or Wednesday.

This, despite pleadings and posturing by the camp of Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas, Liberal Party (LP) vice presidential candidate, contesting the estimated three million “null votes,” to have these audited by the NBoC.

“We will dispose of that (motion) because some of those raised in those pleadings are matters that can only be handled by opening the ballot boxes.

“In a canvassing process you cannot open the ballots. Only the electoral tribunals can open the ballot boxes. Only they can go to the ballots. The canvassers do not go to the ballots,” said Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile.

“There’s no reason not to proclaim both, as far as I know there is no major issue left to delay the proclamation of one or the other,” he added.

The NBoC is set to resume on Monday afternoon the canvassing of the five remaining CoCs coming from Mt. Province, Bacolod City, Davao City, Eastern Samar and Lanao del Sur estimated to be between 1.4 to 1.5 million votes, which is believed to spell a difference in the standings in the vice presidential race of Roxas and Jejomar Binay of the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP).

“The difference is only about a little over 600,000 and of course not all of the remaining votes will go to one candidate. We do not know the ratios although what I heard is that Binay won very big in Davao City, I think. That’s a big bloc of votes. Roxas also won very big in Bacolod . So we do not know how much each one garnered in Eastern Samar and Mountain Province and Lanao del Sur which are still to be tabulated,” said Enrile.

“The earliest we could proclaim is on Tuesday, the latest, Wednesday,” said Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, pointing out the preparation of the committee report could take some time.

“We’re hoping that we could finish our job yesterday and instruct the committee to prepare the report over the weekend but it didn’t happen so we’ll be back by Monday and I don’t think they can work on the report overnight. Again we will try our best. Best efforts will see proclamation by Tuesday proclamation, or Wednesday,” Zubiri said.

Enrile echoed the same, in a separate interview, pointing out that if they there will be no more hitches, the proclamation can take place the following day or after the last canvassing day.

“So far there’s no major problem about the canvassing for both president and vice president. So I think by next week we will finish the whole thing, both the (canvassing for) president and vice president,” he said.

Enrile emphasized that Roxas’ issue on the so-called null votes will have to be taken to the presidential electoral tribunal (PET).

“We cannot nullify any votes. We cannot nullify any votes but we cannot include votes that are not sent to us for canvassing,” he said.

Amid the insistence of Roxas’ camp to count the null votes in the May 10, 2010 election, Binay yesterday said that the contentious “null votes” is a non-issue that should not be talked about.

According to Binay counsel Aquilino “Coco” Pimentel, there were 8.2 million null votes in the 2004 presidential elections, but Fernando Poe Jr. and Loren Legarda did not make an issue out of it when they filed their election protests because what is important are “counted votes.”

“In 2004, there were 3.1 million null votes for president and 5.1 million null votes for vice president but Senator Loren Legarda, when she filed a protest pointed to the votes counted and not to the null votes because it is the right of the people to abstain from voting,” Pimentel said.

Pimentel said that null votes are either the result of over voting or abstaining, which is the right of every voter. He added that in an election, the winner is determined by the most number of valid votes counted.

At the same time, the Binay camp asked Roxas to stop using the name of FPJ, saying that the Roxas group was part of the Arroyo administration coalition that suppressed the presentation of evidence of poll fraud during the 2004 elections.

Another Binay lawyer, Sandy Coronel, also urged Roxas “to be gentleman enough” and accept the judgment of the people instead of making unsubstantiated charges that could even undermine the victory of his running mate, Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino.

In any elections, there will really be instances where a candidate will lose in a province. Mayor Binay lost in certain provinces like Pampanga but he has been gentleman enough to acknowledge this. Candidates should not be angry if the people do not vote for them. We hope that all candidates will be man enough to accept and respect the mandate and the decision of the people,” Coronel told the members of the joint canvassing committee Thursday.

Pimentel said contrary to statements made by the camp of Roxas, large percentages of null votes are not only prevalent in Roxas bailiwicks.

The Binay camp also reacted to statements made by Liberal Party (LP) Secretary General Butch Abad where the name of FPJ was mentioned in connection with the Hello Garci controversy in 2004.

Abad said FPJ complained about high voting percentages in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in the 2004 elections, which the LP claims is a possible indication of vote padding in the region.

But the Binay camp reminded the group of Abad of their silence during the canvassing of votes in the 2004 elections, when documents and concrete proof of election fraud were being presented on behalf of FPJ.

“It is not surprising that Mar Roxas and Butch Abad remained quiet in 2004 since they were allied with Mrs. Arroyo. We must also remember that at that time it was Mayor Jojo Binay who stood by and supported FPJ,” lawyer JV Bautista said.

Bautista also debunked the so-called analysis by an expert, Anton Bonifacio, presented by LP.

“Analysis is not fact, nor is it concrete evidence. If they believe they have concrete evidence of election irregularities, then they should file the proper complaint at the proper venue. Otherwise, what the LP has presented is just propaganda masquerading as expert analysis,” Bautista said.

He said if the LP have been more truthful, they would have also studied the voting behavior for both president and vice president instead of focusing on the vice presidential results. They should also drill down to consider the voting aptters for governor and vice governor and mayor and vice mayor.

For his part, Pimentel said the poor performance of Roxas in Maguindanao can be explained by the fact the province is a stronghold of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) which campaigned against Roxas.

“The zero votes are possible at precinct level, especially if the precinct happens to be in MILF territory,” he said. –Angie M. Rosales with Gerry Baldo, DAily Tribune