Palace to critics: Back poll fraud claims
MANILA, Philippines–Malacañang Sunday said critics of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) decision to renew the services of Smartmatic for the 2016 polls should provide “direct and concrete” evidence to back up their allegations of massive fraud when the automated technology was used in the past two elections.
The Comelec last week signed a P240-million deal with Smartmatic to conduct diagnostics tests on its 82,000 precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.
“The integrity of the elections is important and it is the job of the Comelec as an independent constitutional body to ensure this. The allegations against the machines used are serious charges. Those who have direct and concrete proof about this should offer what they know in the proper forum,” Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said in a briefing.
“They should also help in laying down the complete information in order to aid the authorities,” he said.
Coloma was reacting to allegations made by Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares in a privilege speech last week that the government should stop depending on “dubious machines that nobly churn out receipts,” but instead adopt a manual count of votes at the precinct level.
Colmenares is not alone in his case as the Court of Appeals has allowed a regional trial court (RTC) in Bulacan to proceed with hearing the damage suit filed by a 2010 mayoral candidate against Smartmatic.
Mayoral bet seeks P31.5M
Former Bulacan representative and losing candidate for San Jose del Monte city mayor Angelito Sarmiento has sued Smartmatic and is seeking P31.5 million in actual damages from the service provider and its officers.
Sarmiento, the ruling Liberal Party’s reelectionist candidate for city mayor in the May 2010 elections, charged that he was disenfranchised after Smartmatic’s PCOS machine rejected his properly shaded ballot several times.
He said he was not allowed to get a replacement ballot and was told to leave the precinct, thus disenfranchising him and violating his constitutionally guaranteed right of suffrage.
The petitioner said he later discovered that there were many similar cases of unlawful disenfranchisement of voters in other precincts in San Jose del Monte where the PCOS machines rejected genuine and properly shaded ballots.
This prompted Sarmiento to lodge a civil case alleging that Smartmatic and its officials—chair Juan Villa, Jr., chief financial officer Armando Yanes, senior vice president Salvador Aque and president Cesar Flores—were guilty of willful and negligent acts contrary to law.
Viable cause of action
The appellate court’s Sixth Division, in a 17-page ruling dated Jan. 21 and released last week, upheld two resolutions of the Malolos City RTC in 2011 that denied Smartmatic’s motions to dismiss Sarmiento’s suit.
The justices agreed with the RTC judge that Sarmiento had a “viable” cause of action against Smartmatic.
Colmenares, in his privilege speech, said that since the government first tapped Smartmatic machines for the elections five year ago, computer malfunctions had increased from 10 percent of total machines in 2010 to 25 percent in 2013.
Colmenares questioned why the government continued to rely on Smartmatic despite its “losing its credibility” in the last two elections.
For his part, Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr., vice chair of the House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms, said criticisms against Smartmatic should be taken in a broader context and backed by proof and not just conjecture.
“We had two elections using Smartmatic PCOS machines. While there are complaints, the overall results have been accepted by the public, including the losing candidates,” said Barzaga.
