Robredo camp dismisses whistleblowers’ poll fraud claim

THE camp of Vice President-elect Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo shrugged off the allegation of three “whistleblowers” that they were ordered to manipulate the results of the elections in Quezon province to give her 300,000 votes.

Seasoned election lawyer Atty. Romulo Macalintal dismissed this as “figments of their imagination.”

The three surfaced hours before the proclamation of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte and Robredo.

“Yung sinasabi ng alleged whistleblowers, walang katotohanan yun. Iniimbento lang yun. That is a figment of his wild imagination. And I challenge him na patunayan yun. Kasi kung nadagdagan tayo ng boto, ng 300,000, dapat sana nag-exceed ang number of voters,” Macalintal said.

The lawyer said that the claim of the supposed witnesses that they have set-up a “war room” to allegedly tweak the results of the votes during the transmission is impossible to happen.

“Imposible yun. Para makita mo yung transmission ng results, dapat nandoon ka sa transparency server, o kaya andun ka sa Board of Canvassers at makikita mo yung pagdating ng boto. Kapag ganon, na sila sila lang, imposible yun,” he said.

The lawyer asked the public not to believe the allegation, saying that the accusers have the burden of proof on the supposed existence of poll fraud.

“Huwag po kayong maniwala sa mga sinasabing ganyan. Para po malaman kung may daya o mali, ang dapat ipakita ng mga nag-akusa ay isang election return na hindi tumutugma sa election return from transparency server.”

“I challenge them, just show me one election return na hindi nagta-tally doon sa transparency server or sa [election] return na pinalabas ng VCM (vote counting machine). Hanggang ngayon, wala pa silang napakitang ganong ebidensiya,” he said.

Robredo defeated Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. by a margin of about 260,000 votes.