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MANILA, Philippines — Philippine National Police (PNP) officer-in-charge Lt. Gen. Vicente Danao Jr. is urging those who are claiming electoral fraud to bring the issue before the courts .
Danao during the Pulis at Ur Serbis program on the UNTV network on Wednesday said that he does not understand why some groups insist on claiming there was massive fraud in the recently concluded elections.
Danao did not mention any name in particular, but some supporters of Vice President Leni Robredo who ran for president, are claiming that irregularities have marred the recently-concluded elections.
“And I don’t see saan po nila nakuha ‘yong sinasabi po nilang pandaraya. Eh ang natandaan ko po no’ng 2016, eh hindi naman po sila ‘yong naglead, and yet sila po ‘yong nanalo. Hindi kaya dapat tanungin natin sila? Baka po kayo ang nandaya no’ng mga panahon na ‘yan?” Danao asked.
(And I don’t see where they got these accusations of cheating. Because from what I remember in 2016, even if they did not lead surveys, they still won. Shouldn’t we ask them instead? Maybe it was you who cheated during that time?)
“But never narinig ninyo na may reklamo, at never din nating nakita na meron mga nagpo-protesta sa mga kalsada. Siguro kung meron po tayong sinasabi na pandaraya, let us bring this to the proper forum, let us bring it to the proper court,” he added.
(But you never heard any complaint, and we never saw protests mounting on the streets. Maybe if you have claims of cheating and fraud, let us bring this to the proper forum and bring it to the proper court.)
According to Danao, it is only now in the country’s history that a presidential candidate who led pre-election surveys also led in the actual voting.
“Hindi ko po maintidihan kung saan nila napulot itong massive cheating. Unang-una po, meron po tayong tinatawag na pre-election surveys, and kung makikita naman po natin, eh never in the history, since the start of the campaign period na may nag-lead lalong-lalo na po ‘yong mga natalo ngayon,” he said.
(I cannot understand where they got the idea of massive cheating. First of all, we have these so-called pre-election surveys, and if you can see, never in history, since the start of the campaign period, that someone led as high as the losers today.)
“Never in the history po since the campaign period that you lead in any survey. So dyan pa lang makikita na po natin na ‘yong mga nanalo po ngayon are the same persons who have been leading the way in this pre-election survey,” he added.
(Never in the history, that since the campaign period, that you lead in any survey. So at that level alone you can see that the winners of these polls are the same persons who have been leading the way in this pre-election survey.)
As of Tuesday afternoon, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) transparency server showed that former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. already has over 30.95 million votes, way ahead of Robredo’s 14.75 million votes.
In Pulse Asia’s April voter preference survey, 56 percent of respondents picked Marcos for president, while only 23 percent chose Robredo.
READ: Partial, unofficial tally: Marcos has 30M votes, Robredo 14M
READ: Almost no movement in Pulse Asia’s latest survey; Marcos still leads
Earlier, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon said the government thwarted around 20,000 attempts to hack the automated elections.
This came less than a month before three hackers who claimed they could breach the Comelec system and manipulate the outcome of the 2022 elections were arrested in Cavite and Laguna by PNP and the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC).
The CICC however said the arrested hackers were not capable to get inside the automated system even with the aid of a former employee of Smartmatic. Instead, the suspects were only out to scam politicians by duping them into thinking that they can alter the election results.
Smartmatic is the provider of the country’s automated election system.
READ: Hackers claiming they can manipulate 2022 polls fall in Cavite, Laguna
READ: CICC says arrested hackers can’t manipulate polls, only out to scam politicians