(NI KIKO CUETO)

HUGAS-kamay ang Commission on Elections (Comelec) nang ibato nila ang sisis sa mga guro kung bakit may nawawalang ballot images sa poll protest ni dating senador Ferdinance ‘Bongbong’ Marcos, Jr., laban kay Leni Robredo.

Tinawag din itong palusot ng kampo ni Marcos Jr., sa akusasyong paninisi sa mga guro.

“The sparse explanation given by the Comelec to the PET just shows their lack of interest in finding out the reason for the disappearance of those ballot images.  Blaming the teachers who just did what they were told is quite lame.  It’s nothing but a convenient excuse on their part,” pahayag ng tagapagsalita nito na si Atty. Vic Rodriguez.

Ginawa ni Atty. Rodriguez ang reaksyon kaugnay sa ulat na sinisisi umano ng Comelec ang guro, sa kanilang paliwanag sa Supreme Court, na siyang umuupo na Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) nang tanungin kung bakit may mga nawawalang ballot images sa protesta ni Marcos.

Binanggit umano ng Comelec sa internal memorandum na may petsang July 22, 2019 kung saan nakasaad na “The audit logs obtained during the decryption of the SD cards of the above-stated clustered precincts reveal that the Electoral Boards (EBs) used the “REZERO” command before shutting down the Vote Counting Machines (VCMs).  As a result, all the reports and ballot images stored in the SD cards were permanently deleted.”

Sinabi umano ng Comelec na ang teachers na tumatayo sa Electoral Board ay sinabihan “to only use the “REZERO” command sa Final Testing and Sealing stage na ginawa bago ang halalan.

Pero hindi umano isinaad sa memo kung kailan at paano ang “REZEROING” ng VCMs.

Sa Resolution na may petsang July 2, 2019, ibinasura ng PET ang inihaiang petisyon ni Robredo na i-dismiss ang election protest ni Marcos.

Sinasabing ang mosyon ay ‘premature’ at ‘fundamentally flawed’.

Ipinag-utos din sa resolusyon na inaasatan ang Comelec na sagutin ang dating mosyon na inihain ni Marcos na pinagpapaliwanag ang poll body sa nawawalang ballot images, ang non-chronological sequencing ng ballot images at sobrang ballot images mula sa ibang clustered precincts sa Camarines Sur at Iloilo.

Naunang sinabi umano ng Comelec na sa non-chronological sequencing of ballot images, ay kinukunsidera umano ang “the secrecy of the ballots.”

“Comelec’s explanation for the scrambled ballot images is preposterous.  The information contained in the SD cards are very voluminous and would pose a great challenge to anyone who wants to retrace the records to a specific voter,” ayon kay Atty. Rodriguez.

“It’s been over 3 years and not an ounce of investigative work was done by Comelec so they could get to the bottom of these anomalies.  It’s been one palusot after another.  If Comelec really wanted to, they could have probed deeper in order to uncover the truth behind the discrepancies we have highlighted.  This will not sit well with the people and the Tribunal,” pagtatapos ni Atty. Rodriguez.