Miriam cautions against cheating in May 9 polls

Presidential candidate Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago at The Forum attended mostly by students held in Baker Memorial Hall, UP Los Banos, Laguna. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/LYN RILLON

Presidential candidate Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago warned of a possibility of cheating in the May 9 automated elections in favor of certain candidates.

“I will not discount that there will be cheating in the elections, but I’m not aware of what the youth desire to do about it,” she told reporters in a recent interview.

Her running mate, Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., has been preparing to file a complaint before the Commission on Elections regarding supposed discrepancies on vote receipts in the overseas absentee voting.

Santiago has been consistently at the bottom of  surveys, a contrast to her being a top choice in several university mock polls.

“There is now an attempt to condition the mind of the public on who should be the winners, so basically if we follow them, it will not be the voters who will determine who win but the owners of these presidential surveys,” she said.

“We have to watch out because there is a lot of falsity going around,” she added.

The senator also took a jab at her rivals who embarked on premature campaigning: “If these candidates who are said to be leading were those precisely guilty of pre-campaign advertising; kaya they will not stop at that. A lot of money has been spent during these elections; too much money because of these pre-campaign overspending of certain candidates.”

Santiago, who relies on her popularity among the youth, has expressed concern that the young generation might take  to the streets should there be vote rigging.

“Baka ‘di ko mapigilan ang mga kabataan at umalsa ang mga ‘yan dahil gusto na ng reporma at mabago ang bansa. Kung dagdag pa ang pagnakaw ng balota, hindi ko na alam kung kaya ko pa pigilan ang mga kabataan,” she said.

(I might not be able to stop the youth; they might revolt because they want reform and change in the country. If there will be ballot stealing, I’m not sure if I can still stop them.) JE/rga

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