Roxas denies poll cheating; belies Binay accusation

IN A NUTSHELL: Mar Roxas clarifies he’s not a cheater ♦ Roxas debunks the latest accusation of Sen. Nancy Binay ♦ He also said that in 2010 he lost 2 million votes

Former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, the Liberal Party’s (LP) presidential bet in 2016, vehemently denied on Thursday that he was involved in any electoral fraud during the national elections two years ago.

Roxas issued the statement on Thursday after Senator Nancy Binay disclosed in a forum that the LP 2016 standard-bearer may have been a beneficiary of election “irregularities,” in which other presidential candidates allegedly received zero votes in some precincts.

“Hindi ako nandaya, at hindi ako mandaraya. Alam ko kung gaano kasakit ang nadaya dahil mga dalawang milyong boto ang nawala sa akin nung 2010 elections,” Roxas said in a text message.
(I did not cheat and I am not a cheater. I personally know how painful it was to be cheated on because I lost about two million votes during the 2010 elections.)

In 2010, Roxas filed an electoral protest against former Vice President Jejomar Binay, claiming that there was a high incidence of null and misread votes in the certificates of canvass in all precincts nationwide.

But in 2016, the PET decided to junk his poll protest on the ground of “mootness” as Vice President Leni Robredo already assumed office before a resolution was made.

“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,’” the defeated presidential candidate stressed.

(It is also irresponsible for someone to release these kinds of accusations especially that it is based solely on the word “supposedly.”)

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Senator Binay, during the regular Kapihan sa Senado forum on Thursday, said that the alleged manipulation of votes may have benefitted “the number two” in the presidential race.

It was Roxas who came second in the presidential race with 9,978,175 votes, more than five million votes behind incumbent president Rodrigo Duterte who won the presidency with 16,601,997 votes.

Binay, however, clarified that Roxas was not necessarily behind the alleged irregularities, but he may have benefitted from it.

“Hindi naman siya [Roxas]…Parang napaboran [It was not actually him… It was like getting a favor],” Binay said in the forum.

“May mga documents pero hindi nga ako techie person so hindi ko alam yung truth [There are documents but I’m not a techie person so I do not know the real 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 [Because they are showing some surge of votes, they have printout  so I really do not know if the source is reliable].” /jpv

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