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Home Sections Politics Congress Should Get to the Bottom of Poll Cheating – Senator Pimentel
Congress Should Get to the Bottom of Poll Cheating – Senator Pimentel PDF Print E-mail
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Sections - Politics
Written by Senator Pimentel's Press Office   
Sunday, 16 May 2010 21:51

 

S enate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. today said candidates for President and Vice President, along with their lawyers, who claim to have been cheated should be prepared to present credible evidence so that Congress can give due course to their complaints when it canvasses the votes for the two positions.

 

Senator Pimentel said he will see to it that allegations of fraud are properly addressed by the Senate and House of Representatives, and not summarily disposed of with a plain “noted” as what congressional leaders did during the canvassing of votes in the 2004 Presidential and Vice Presidential Elections.

 

“It is imperative on the part of the Senate and House of Representatives to pursue common efforts in ascertaining who really won the elections and the true will of the people. We want to see a President who genuinely represents the people and who can lead the nation on the road to unity, peace and progress,” he said.

 

Senator Pimentel issued the statement in the wake of allegations by certain candidates, political leaders and groups that rampant irregularities have marred the country’s first fully automated national and local elections. The complainants claimed that election results, as reflected in the certificate of canvass, did not match with the figures in the election returns. There were also allegations of manipulation of election results through the use of tampered and pre-programmed compact flash cards which contain instructions for the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines to read the ballots.

 

Smartmatic officials, foreign and local alike, should be prevented from leaving the country while the election irregularities are being investigated.  They should be criminally charged as warranted by evidence that may be unearthed in the investigation—Nene Pimentel

 

T he opposition senator from Mindanao said it is the job of the Commission on Elections to look into the allegations of high-tech or “digital dagdag bawas” (vote padding and shaving” and to initiate criminal charges against the perpetrators.

 

Senator Pimentel stressed that Congress, in discharging its vote canvassing functions, should act as decisively but as impartially as possible in resolving the allegations of poll anomalies.  But he said Congress cannot take action on complaints unsupported by evidence.

 

“They should gather all available evidence. Whether it was Erap or Villar or anyone who was cheated, they should come up with solid evidence, without which it would be a futile exercise,” he said.

 

Senator Pimentel urged election authorities to investigate the reported dumping of l6 sacks filled with election returns and related paraphernalia into a junk shop in Cagayan de Oro.  He said such election materials should be preserved and kept by the Comelec since they may be used in resolving electoral protests by the candidates and parties concerned.

 

Such disturbing incidents, he said, only fuel the suspicion that fraud perpetrators have started destroying evidence of poll cheating. Some groups have already warned the Comelec against destroying the compact flash cards or memory cards.

 

“It was patently irresponsible for Comelec to say that they found nothing wrong about the disposal and dumping of the used election paraphernalia in Cagayan de Oro by claiming that they were of no use anymore because the elections are over,” Senator Pimentel said.

 

He also reiterated that Smartmatic International, the contractor of the P7.2-billion poll automation project, must be held responsible for the scrapping of essential security features and the malfunctioning of the PCOS machines that have led to   fraudulent election results, aside from causing mass disenfranchisement of voters.

 

“Smartmatic officials, foreign and local alike, should be prevented from leaving the country while the election irregularities are being investigated.  They should be criminally charged as warranted by evidence that may be unearthed in the investigation,” Mr. Pimentel said. # # #



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Comments (1)
Tidbits

Nene Pimentel

Rembrandt

May 21, 2010


1. ON PPCRV.

The PPCRV needs reminding that it is the people’s eyes and ears on the conduct of the automotive election system.

It must not keep its findings in the vaults of secrecy that tend to augment public anxiety over reported anomalies in the 2010 elections.

Otherwise, their very act of keeping things close to their chest, will fuel speculation that they want to cover up for the misdeeds of certain people.

One specific example that does not need IT experts is the recovery of several sacks of ERs and other election paraphernalia from a dumpsite and a junk shop in Cagayan de Oro.

Why are the people not told of what they have found – so far. They do not need to jump into conclusions. All that the people want is that they are kept abreast with the doings of the PPCRV – which is supposed to be the people’s eyes-and-ears on the conduct of the 2010 elections.

2. On Canvassing.

I would assume that the presidential & VP canvassing board (Senate and House) would do its work fast enough so that it is not perceived as if it is acting to delay the proclamation of the rightful winners and perhaps negotiate concessions.

In the process, I dispute the statements of the Senate President as if he can dictate to the Canvass Board what should be discussed during the canvassing.

Only the Rules democratically adopted may prevent senators and congressmen from raising questions relative to the results of the elections – not the peremptory, authoritarian, martial law style, proclamations of the Senate President.

I support his stand that so-called valedictory speeches of outgoing senators or congress persons need not be a part of the agenda of the canvassing board. To me, they’d just be self-adulatory and a time-wasting activity.

3. COMELEC, PCOS & SMARTMATIC.

The Comelec officials who had anything to do with PCOS machines and the Smartmatic operators who assured the nation of the flawless results of the AES should be called to account with proper evidence for anomalies unearthed in the aftermath of the elections. They should be charged criminally, administratively and civilly.

4. The Comelec has had a reputation for covering up for the misdeeds of their subordinates in the past.

I hope that today the Comelec commissioners should help unmask the perpetrators of acts of manipulations of the machines or other election related activities; charge them administratively, suspend them immediately; prosecute them subsequently and jail them accordingly. # # #

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