Dilangalen, Golez in heated exchange over compact flash cards

A heated exchange took place between two members of a body canvassing votes in the May 10 polls one disagreed with the other’s claim that the authenticity of some compact flash cards used by voting machines was "compromised." During proceedings of the 18-member National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) on Wednesday, Maguindanao Representative Didagen Dilangen said that some of the compact flash cards were "compromised" after these were reconfigured by Commission on Election (Comelec) employees. The reconfiguration — which was ordered by Comelec executive director Jose Tolentino — "involved fraud," the lawmaker said. "We could proceed with canvassing but this (order) affects the accuracy of the CF cards." However, Representative Roilo Golez disagreed. The order issued by Tolentino indicated that the reconfiguration was undertaken by the personnel of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), not employees of the poll body, Golez said. “We don’t want inaccurate input from our colleague in Maguindanao. The memorandum stated that the reconfiguration will be done by the DOST and not by the election officer, the information was inaccurate. He was absent in the committee hearing, I was there," Golez said, referring to the House committee on suffrage hearing earlier in the day where the issue was tackled. Miffed by Golez’s remarks, Dilangalen hurled invectives at his adversary, prompting House Speaker Prospero Nograles and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile to suspended the proceedings immediately. But the two continued the altercation. And this time around, Reps. Abraham Mitra and Joel Villanueva tried to pacify the two, who shook hands minutes later. During field tests held before the elections, some automated voting machines failed to proceed because the compact flash cards they used were found to be defective. The Comelec immediately had these cards reconfigured immediately, prompting some candidates such as presidential bet Jamby Madrigal to say that the reconfiguration may have 'preprogrammed' the cards to read more votes for other candidates. - RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV