IN A NUTSHELL: Senator Nancy Binay alleges that Mar Roxas benefitted from 2016 poll ‘irregularities’ ♦ Roxas denies allegation saying he too was cheated in 2010 polls
♦ ♦ ♦
Defeated presidential bet Mar Roxas had allegedly benefitted from “irregularities” that allegedly transpired during the 2016 elections, Senator Nancy Binay disclosed on Thursday, citing information relayed to her last year by a group of computer experts.
Based on the information, Binay said her father, defeated presidential bet Jejomar Binay, had received zero votes in some precincts.
“Parang tanggap naman nya talaga na talo sya. Pero ang hindi nya matanggap na bakit ganun yung boto lang nya?” the senator said during the regular Kapihan sa Senado on Thursday.
“Nakarating na rin sa amin ang report na apparently sa kanya din ang dami din yang mga presinto na zero vote. So I guess interesado din syang malaman kung may katotohanan talaga yung privilege speech ni Senator Sotto,” she said.
Last Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III exposed in a privilege speech the alleged irregularities in the 2016 elections, such as the early transmission of votes even before the election day and the supposed “foreign access” in the election servers.
Sotto, when interpellated by some of his colleagues, also claimed that some candidates, including him and Senators Grace Poe, Panfilo Lacson, and Juan Miguel Zubiri also received zero votes during the early transmission.
While they have already accepted the defeat of her father, Senator Binay said they also want to find out if there was “truth “ to the number of votes that the former Vice President had received.
“Because ang daming feedback dun sa mga tao namin sa baba na may mga presinto na zero sya…” she said.
Asked who could have manipulated the alleged rigging of votes, the senator said, “Syempre mas in favor dun sa incumbent.”
Pressed further, she said: “Sino ba yung number 2?”
Former Secretary Mar Roxas ranked second in the presidential race based on the official tally of votes.
Asked again if she was referring to Roxas, “I guess, e sila naman yung may capability.. dahil sila yung nakaupo.”
But Senator Binay quickly clarified that Roxas was not necessarily behind the alleged manipulation of votes but he had allegedly benefitted from it.
“Hindi naman sya (Roxas)…Parang napaboran,” she said.
She said the information was relayed to her late last year by a group of experts, who had approached her with documents, which supposedly came from the Commission on Election.
“May mga documents pero hindi nga ako techie person so hindi ko alam yung truth,” the senator said.
“Kasi parang may mga pinapakita silang surge of votes, may mga printout sila so hindi ko naman alam kung reliable yung pinagkunan nila.”
While she said she has yet to decide whether or not to seek reelection next year, Senator Binay said the group came to her supposedly to prevent another “magic” in the upcoming polls.
Roxas however denied Binay’s allegations adding that he too was a victim of cheating having lost 2 million votes in the 2010 polls.
“Hindi ako nandaya, at hindi ako mandaraya. Alam ko kung gano kasakit ang nadaya dahil mga 2 milyong boto ang nawala sa akin nung 2010 elections. I am not about to turn around and do the same thing to someone else. Hindi rin responsableng magbitaw ng ganitong klaseng akusasyon na ang basehan ay ang salitang ‘parang,’” said Roxas in a text message. /muf