MANILA, Philippines—The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Monday stood by the integrity of its shipping process as it denied reports that tampered ballots were delivered in Pasig City.
Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez issued the statement after ballot boxes delivered to Pasig on May 3 allegedly had torn seal stickers.
This was brought to the attention of Jimenez through a Twitter post made by former Valenzuela Councilor Shalani Soledad, wife of former Pasig Rep. Roman Romulo, who is again running for a seat in the House.
Hi @jabjimenez When the ballot boxes arrived this morning, it was in this state. See attached photo. Is this the norm? Thank you. pic.twitter.com/s5RNrYKqsL
— Shalani Soledad (@shalanisoledad) May 3, 2019
Jimenez clarified that it was the seal on the van that was seen broken in the images and not the sticker seals of the cargo, adding that the tear was “accidental.”
“The conclusion is that the tear is accidental. The most telling thing there is that the torn edges or the lap was uneven and was not consistent with a deliberate breaking of the seal,” Jimenez said in a press briefing.
“We also got input from various sources that the doors of the winged van, which was what we used for deliveries, tend to move around a lot,” he added. “So if you have a tape, if you have a sticker basically attaching two parts of a moving truck there is a tendency to tear.”
Jimenez also said that the contents of the van were not tampered and were properly wrapped.
“The shipping committee advised that, in order to check the integrity of the entire shipment, we don’t just look at whether or not the exterior sticker is intact, you check to see whether the packaging of the cargo is intact,” he said. “Each cargo is sealed individually, the ballot boxes are actually wrapped and there are seals all over the place.”
Meanwhile, a Comelec delivery truck with a broken seal was also reported in Manila over the weekend.
READ: Delivery of ballots for Metro Manila finished by Tuesday – Comelec
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