Enrile vows to use all his ‘political force’ to block return to manual polls

MANILA, Philippines—Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile has vowed to use all his “political force” to block any move to return to manual elections.

“Hindi ako papayag sa manual. At gagamitin ko lahat ng political force ko (I will not agree to manual and I will use all my political force) to oppose any return to manual,” Enrile said during the joint hearing of the Senate committee on electoral reforms and select oversight committee on suffrage.

“Lalo na sa canvassing, diyan ang dayaan e. Wag na tayong maglokohan, diyan nadadaya. Gumagawa ng dayaan sa canvassing. Pwede nilang palitan ang resulta (Especially in the canvassing, the cheating happens there. Let’s not fool ourselves. The cheating is done in the canvassing where they can alter the result),” he said.

Enrile said it would be difficult to believe that President Benigno Aquino III and Vice President Jejomar Binay won in the 2010 elections because they cheated using the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS).

“Pag sasabihin natin na may dayaan dito sa PCOS, ibig sabihin yung paghalal kay President Aquino ay nadaya? Imposible naman siguro no? (If we say there was cheating in PCOS, does that mean that President Aquino cheated? That’s impossible)” he asked.

“Kahit na ‘yong kay Binay, hindi nadaya ‘yon. Kina-canvass namin ‘yon e. Sino ang nagsasabi ng dayaan? (Even in the case of Binay, there was no cheating there. We did the canvassing. Who said there was cheating there?)” he further asked.

Enrile even dared a resource person in the hearing to name anyone in power who cheated to get elected in government.

“If you can prove to us that there were people who are sitting now, exercising power, who were the product of cheating during the last election, then we’re open,” the Senate leader added.