Contributed photo of the alleged stripping of vote-counting machine SD cards.
The camp of former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Thursday hit the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for allegedly violating a Supreme Court order.
Marcos’ office accused the Comelec of going against the SC order to preserve election materials and data from the May elections.
Marcos, who ran as vice president, is still contesting the win of Vice President Leni Robredo, saying the results were manipulated.
His camp earlier opposed the return of more than 1,000 vote-counting machines (VCM) to Smartmatic because of their ongoing protest.
It said supposedly unused SD cards from the VCMs were stripped of data during a 14-hour activity at the Comelec warehouse in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.
Marcos’ counsel Jose Amor Amorado said the stripping of data was against the SC’s Precautionary Protective Order (PPO) to preserve election materials. The SC was then sitting as Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET).
“There was undue haste seen as erasing possible evidence. We find it extremely incredible why Comelec could openly defy such a lawful order of the highest court of the land just to accommodate Smartmatic and appeared to be [in] a rush to turn over the VCMs to Smartmatic,” Amorado said.
The stripping of data came after Comelec granted Smartmatic’s request to recall 1,365 VCMs that were allegedly unused during the May elections.
READ: Comelec returns 1,000 VCMs to Smartmatic
The Marcos camp said many of the SD cards had data, as well as defects, while some VCMs had missing SD cards.
It also decried the extension of the activity beyond a supposed 5 p.m. deadline.
“Prudence would have dictated Comelec to wait for the PET resolution on our motion but they did the exact opposite and even conducted the stripping activity in haste with so many violations and irregularities. We really find it highly irregular if not criminal,” Amorado said.
Photos of the reported event were sent to INQUIRER.net.
Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez was given a copy of the photos and was asked for comment but said he was still waiting for the statement of the Project Management Office. CDG/rga