UNA claims of manipulation ‘utterly false’, says poll contractor

‘UTTERLY FALSE’. Cesar Flores, Smartmatic Asia Pacific president, tells reporters Wednesday, May 15, 2013, that claims by the United Nationalist Alliance of “data manipulation” on the election returns were “utterly false”. Flores issued the statement after UNA filed a motion before the Commission on Elections seeking the suspension of the proclamation of winning senatorial candidates. Video by INQUIRER.net’s Cathy Miranda

MANILA, Philippines – The allegations by United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) spokesman Tobias Tiangco of data manipulation by Smartmatic were “completely, utterly false” according to its president.

“If UNA believes there was a manipulation, all they have to bring is their own copy of the election returns (ER) and show that its different of whatever is published on the website or by PPCRV,” Smartmatic Asia Pacific president Cesar Flores told reporters in an ambush interview Wednesday.

UNA deputy secretary general Sherwin Gatchalian filed on the same day a motion to suspend the proclamation of the winning senatorial candidates before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) head office, citing “manipulated data” from the unofficial count of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV).

Tiangco said that a Smartmatic personnel, identified as Daton Cerino, allegedly manipulated the server of the PPCRV.

“It’s very easy to prove if there was any manipulation on our side, which is completely, and utterly false,” he said.

Flores also said that the results published by the PPCRV, which it obtained from the transparency server was only a copy of the election returns submitted to the Comelec’s central server.

“The proclamation happens on the National Board of Canvassers’ server which is completely separate from the Transparency server at PPCRV,” Flores said.

When asked if Cerino was an employee of Smartmatic, Flores confirmed that Cerino was a technician and was there to maintain the PPCRV server.

“He is one of our technicians, we have all the right to be there because we were contracted to do so,” Flores said.