Marcos camp hits departure of Smartmatic exec despite hold order

The camp of vice presidential hopeful Senator Bongbong Marcos files a criminal case vs Comelec and Smartmatic. FRANCES MANGOSING/INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

The camp of Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. on Sunday deplored the inaction of the Commission on Elections and the Bureau of Immigration on its request to hold the departure of a Smartmatic staff member allegedly connected with the supposed unauthorized alteration of the script of an election transparency server used in the May 9 polls.

It was found out during Friday’s preliminary investigation of the case at the Manila Prosecutor’s Office that one of the respondents, Smartmatic staffer Mauricio Herrera, had already left the country and was now in his home country of Panama, despite Smartmatic’s earlier assurances that none of the respondents had plans of leaving the Philippines.

READ: Smartmatic told: Nobody leave

“’Yun ang hindi natin maintindihan, kaya ‘yun ang dapat ipapaliwanag nila (That’s what we don’t understand and what they need to explain),” complainant Abakada party list Rep. Jonathan Dela Cruz, Marcos’ campaign adviser, said in a statement.

The Marcos camp said that even Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon herself had called for a hold departure order against the respondents after she learned of the unauthorized script change but that Smartmatic had said such an action was unnecessary.

READ: Smartmatic says hold departure unnecessary; Guanzon hits back

Dela Cruz said that until now, neither the Comelec nor the Bureau of Immigration had acted on the request for a hold departure order against the respondents, or for the respondents to be included on the watchlist of the bureau.

The other respondents–Smartmatic personnel Marlon Garcia, a Venezuelan and head of the technical support team; Elie Moreno, an Israeli national and project director; Neil Baniqued, a member of the support team; and Comelec IT experts led by Rouie Peñalba, Nelson Herrera and Frances Mae Gonzalez–were present in the proceedings and submitted their respective counter-affidavits.

The respondents were charged with violation of Section 4(a) of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 or R.A. 10175, which prohibits “intentionally altering computer data, without right and altering and interfering with the functioning of a computer and computer network by inputting, deleting and altering computer data and program, without right or authority.”

The camp of Marcos has questioned what it claimed was the sudden rise of Marcos’ rival in the vice presidential contest , now Vice President-elect Leni Robredo, after the script on the transparency server was altered.

The next hearing on the case is scheduled for July 4. JE/rga