Escudero claims proof, witness to prove discrepancies in 2016 polls

Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES

Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero revealed on Thursday that he is in possession of records showing that many of the “back up” SD memory cards used in the 2016 elections were not a “mirror image” of the original memory cards.

To prove his claim, Escudero said he would present a witness, whom he only identified as  a former elections  official.

“I have records to show that the backup is not a mirror image of the main CD. A lot of them,” Escudero said during a hearing of the joint congressional oversight committee.

“And we don’t even know kung alin ang ginamit na back up at alin ang ginamit na main — how can we expect it to be accurate down to the last vote?” he asked officials of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) led by acting chairman Robert Lim.

“I’ll be presenting that in the next hearing actually,” the senator also said.

Escudero made the revelation while asking Comelec officials how many back up memory cards were used in the last election and if they could distinguish if the votes transmitted came from the back up or the main memory cards.

In an interview after the hearing, the senator said he does not only have records since he also has a witness to prove his claim.

“Actually may print out kami nakuha pero mas maganda manggaling sa  testigo mismo na nagsasabi na hindi mirror image ‘yung back up drive nung main drive,”  he said.

“Ang tanong, ilan sa back up drive ang pinadala? At nasaan ‘yung record ng back up drive? Apparently walang ganung record ang Comelec kaya hiniling namin na maibigay sa committee para makumpara at mapag-aralan ng husto,” he added.

Asked if he would present the witness in the next hearing, Escudero said: “Yes.”

According to him, the witness had approached him late last year.

“He (witness) gave me photocopies. I presumed authentic documents are with him. That’s why I don’t want to speak in details about it until he himself presents it. Kasi kung ako ang magpe-present, hearsay lamang ‘yun,” the senator pointed out.

If proven that the main and back-up files are mismatched, Escudero noted that the next question should be: How many back up memory cards had been used?

“Dahil kung hindi sya accurate picture or carbon copy ng main drive, eh ‘di magi-iba ang resulta to a certain degree. To what extent? Hindi  ko alam at kung hanggang saan ‘di pa rin namin masabi sa ngayon,” the legislator pointed out.

“But it’s a basic technical issue that should not be present dahil dapat mirror image, kumbaga sa carbon paper, para kang nag type sa papel. Dapat kung ano type mo sa papel, ‘yun din ang nasa carbon copy. Ganun din dapat ‘yun back up drive at saka main drive, carbon copy dapat siya,” he further explained.                        /kga