Comelec distances from error-plagued PPCRV count

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) distanced itself from the error with the partial, unofficial count of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) Monday night that caused the latter to stop releasing election results for several minutes.

The PPCRV unofficial results had showed that the “vote count seems to be too high for the number of precincts,” Ana Singson, PPCRV communications and media director had told reporters there.

“The data that has just been read need to be verified. The vote count seems to be too high for the number of precincts being read.  There could be an issue with the script file,” she added.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez, when asked by reporters about the error in the PPCRV, said that they cannot guarantee the data being published there.

“We do not guarantee anyone else’s data, what we guarantee is our data,” Jimenez said.

“Our process is transparent to everyone, let’s wait, let’s see what PPCRV has to say about this, they’re the ones coming out with this data not us,” he said.

The PPCRV later explained that they have fixed the error with the script file citing Marlon Garcia of Smartmatic: “Data correct but it was not properly formatted when thrown to work station resulting in double counting,” PPCRV said in its official twitter account @PPCRV_National.