Tags: Elections
By Anna Valmero
QUEZON CITY, METRO MANILA – Five presidential candidates have raised doubts about the ongoing canvassing of votes by the Commission on Elections (Comelec), citing irregularities and disenfranchised voters in the country’s first ever automated polls.
Latest PPRCV results show Liberal Party candidate Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III leading by at least 5 million votes over his closest rival, former president Joseph Estrada.
However, three other candidates – Ang Kapatiran’s JC Delos Reyes and independent candidates Sen. Jamby Madrigal and Nicanor Perlas – have banded together, saying they are gathering eyewitness reports and publishing them in a this website. (As of this writing, the website is still empty.)
Perlas, Madrigal and Reyes are occupying the bottom three positions in the PPRCV tally, each garnering less than 50,000 votes. But all three denied they are “sourgraping”.
Delos Reyes, who earlier announced he is bowing out of the race, now questions the meager number of votes he earned in his hometown of Olongapo City, where he serves as councilor. “In the 2007 elections, I got 40,000 votes now I only got 242?,” he said.
Perlas, meanwhile, said many of his supporters, in particular those from indigenous groups, were not allowed to vote because their names were missing in the computerized voters’ list. Perlas vowed to file a protest if there is indeed, fraud in the elections.
Madrigal, who, like Perlas, ran without a vice-president, pointed out to “pre-programmed” compact flash cards used in precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.
Bangon Pilipinas, the party of Jesus is Lord leader Bro. Eddie Villanueva, who also earlier conceded, also cited irregularities and massive disenfranchisement of voters. In a separate press conference, Perfecto Yasay, the party’s vice-presidential bet, said they have been receiving reports of a growing number of voters who were not able to vote last Monday.
Meanwhile, Estrada’s legal counsel Irwin Garcia, said in an earlier interview that they are also preparing their own evidence, claiming the manual audit of votes in the province of Masbate, for example, did not tally with results transmitted to Comelec.
Estrada has not yet conceded, earlier saying he will wait until Congress is done with its canvassing of votes for president and vice-president. Sen. Manny Villar of Nacionalista Party and Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro of LAKAS-Kampi have conceded earlier this week.
Asked whether there are plans of talking to Villar and Teodoro, Madrigal replied: “If they will join, it should be out of conviction. This is a principled, not a political stand.”
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