Smartmatic warehouse ceiling collapses; probe sought

Former MMDA chairman Francis Tolentino. INQUIRER.NET FILE PHOTO

Former Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chair Francis Tolentino has urged the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) to investigate the highly suspicious collapse of the ceiling of a warehouse used as storage by Smartmatic in Sta. Rosa, Laguna last Dec. 30.

The incident allegedly damaged the Memory Configuration Room (MCR) of Smartmatic and the Commission on Elections, affecting the servers used during the May 2016 elections which contain vital data which are subject of election protests by former Sen. Bongbong Marcos against Vice President Leni Robredo and Tolentino against Sen. Leila De Lima.

In his motion before the SET, Tolentino likewise requested the help of the National Bureau of Investigation to conduct a thorough probe of the incident to find out the truth.

Tolentino expressed dismay that the Comelec informed the SET about the incident only last Jan. 16, when it asked the tribunal to “reboot, conduct diagnostics and shut down the servers” covered by the election protests to determine the extent of damage to the data in the servers.

Tolentino wants to determine the true circumstances behind the sudden collapse of the roof of the MCR before allowing the Comelec to reboot, conduct diagnostics, and shut down the server units.

“This is highly dubious and further cast doubts on the integrity of the data of the last elections. I am sure there [is a] CCTV [footage] of the Smartmatic warehouse,” Tolentino said.