MANILA, Philippines — Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner George Garcia on Wednesday said the ballots that are shown being ripped in a video were mock ballots that were used in the training of voters.
The video, which is now circulating online, showed two people in police uniforms ripping the ballots.
HUWAAAAY? @Comelec , please explain.#Halalan2022 #Comelec #Election2022PH #Election2022 #Philippines pic.twitter.com/SFD9J0IhvD
— 𝒿𝓊𝓁𝒾𝓊𝓈 💫 (@juliusangelo_) May 10, 2022
“‘Yan po ay dine-deny natin na walang ganyan. ‘Yan po ay fake news,” Garcia stressed on TeleRadyo’s Kabayan.
(We are denying that. That is fake news.)
He explained that the ballots shown being destroyed in the video are mock ballots that were used in training voters.
“Pero tignan niyo po ‘yung video. ‘Yun pong balotang pinakita — napakalabo pa — may pinakita may mga posisyon, may mga shade pero lumayo ‘yung camera. Habang nakalayo siya tapos pinupunit, tignan niyo po, blangko ‘yung balota,” he pointed out.
(Look at the video. The ballots — which are unclear — showed the positions and there were shades but the camera distanced. While the camera was far away, the ballots were torn, look at the ballots, those were blank.)
“’Yun po ay mga fake na balota na pupwede pong ginamit ‘yan para doon sa mga nagte-train. Tine-train ‘yung mga botante nila kung pa’no mag-shade,” he added.
(Those are fake ballots that were maybe used for training the voters how to shade.)
In a message to reporters, Garcia said the training ballots were from candidates.
“Training ballots ng mga candidates. Gumagawa [talaga sila] ng mga ganyan parang sample ballots para i-train mga voter,” he said.
(Training ballots from candidates. They make those to train voters.)
When pressed asked why there is a vote counting machine in the video, Garcia said the video will be referred to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
“Lahat ng video irefer ko sa [NBI] per our arrangement sa kanila. [‘Yung] mga nauna tapos [na investigations] nila. Hinahanda [na] namin complaints… With instruction to [NBI] to verify the truth and veracity of these videos,” the commissioner said.
(All videos will be referred to the NBI per our arrangement with them. Other incidents have been completely investigated. We are preparing complaints against them.)
Garcia, head of Comelec’s task force against fake news, earlier said that they will be filing cases against five alleged spreaders of disinformation.
To date, the Comelec said that there are no complaints on the accuracy of the polls.
As of Wednesday, 7:32 a.m., former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is leading the presidential race with 31 million votes, followed by Vice President Leni Robredo with 14.8 million votes.