Administration determined to cheat in polls, says former GMA cabinet member

 

The Aquino administration is hell-bent on rigging Monday's elections to make sure that their preferred candidates would emerge victorious, a former high-ranking security official said on Saturday.

 

"They all want to lead, so they behave according to the rules dictated by the situation. Ang (rule) ng ating presidente ay pagalingan ng pandaraya. And he is trying to do na siya ang pinakamagaling sa lahat," said Norberto Gonzales, former defense secretary and national security adviser in the Arroyo administraion.

 

Former DND Sec. Norberto Gonzales accuses Aquino of using Comelec to cheat in May 9 polls pic.twitter.com/ZN8fmDsYeq

— Rie Takumi (@rie_takumi) May 7, 2016

 

Gonzales, who is part of the so-called National Transformation Council, moreover accused the President of being the "principal cause and instigator" of electoral manipulation.

 

The administration as well as the Commission on Elections have been consistently denying insinuations that this year's elections would be fraudulent.

 

At the start of the campaign period early this year, a survey conducted by Pulse Asia revealed that nearly four in 10 registered voters expect cheating to happen.

 

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago on Thursday also expressed fear of widespread cheating to stop an "NPA candidate" from winning.

 

The senator was referring to pre-election survey frontrunner Rodrigo Duterte who was very open in admitting having friendly links with local communist leaders.

 

Vice presidential candidate Sen. Francis Escudero on Wednesday also tagged the administration as the lone entity capable of cheating in the May 9 elections, but expressed belief that President Benigno Aquino III would not allow it to happen.

“Ang may kakayahan lang mandaya, administrasyon. Walang iba,” Escudero said at a press conference at the Senate when asked if he thinks administration standard bearer Manuel “Mar” Roxas II is capable of rigging the polls.

Former MRT administrator Al Vitangcol, also a guest in the Saturday Forum, said cheating in an automated elections would be in the form of "card swapping" -- the modern day form of "ballot switching".

 

In this form of cheating, the SD cards in vote counting machines (VCM) which failed to transmit the votes stored in the cards are swapped with pre-programmed SD cards mid-transit to Comelec or Congress' Joint Canvassing Committee for canvassing.

 

"Mayroon pong material time from the precinct to the canvassing center. Habang bitbit po yung SD card na 'yon, ay marami pong pwedeng mangyari," Vitangcol said.

 

He claimed that  nine unauthorized SD card reconfiguration centers have been set up by unidentified parties and batches of pre-shaded official ballots have been retrieved from the National Printing Office.

 

"There has been no official effort to assure the public either that the voting system is adequately protected from any further hacking before, during or after the voting," they said.

 

Shady camps may also replace VCMs with unauthorized units equipped with pre-configured SD cards or manipulate the data transferred from VCMs by tapping into each precinct's IP address.

 

Al Vitangcol: MAC addresses of VCMs & IP add. of each precinct needs to be submitted to SC as anti-cheating measure pic.twitter.com/KbrVu5wHwR

— Rie Takumi (@rie_takumi) May 7, 2016

 

Vitangcol said the Comelec must be compelled to submit a list of each VCM's MAC addresses and precinct IP addresses to the Supreme Court on May 9 to create a safeguard against cheating.

 

"Ito po ay hinihingi natin hindi po para sa pansariling kapakanan kundi sa kapakanan ng bayan at ito po ay hinihingi natin hindi para mapunta sa atin kundi i-sumite sa Korte Suprema at kung magkaroon po ng dayaan, ay meron po tayong basehan para i-check po kung ano ang tunay na nangyari," he explained.

 

Lack of TEC invalidates OAV votes

 

Adding to these accusations is a petition by the Coalition of Clean Air Advocates Philippines (CCAAP) to nullify all votes from the Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV) period.

 

Atty Leo Olarte: CCAAP will file a petition to declare OAV null & void due to the lack of TEC certification for VCMs pic.twitter.com/gH5Yw7AK6t

— Rie Takumi (@rie_takumi) May 7, 2016

 

Former Philippine Medical Association president Leo Olarte said the petition, to be filed on Saturday afternoon, "is based on the flagrant failure of the Comelec" to obtain certification from the Technical Evaluation Committee for the VCMs as stated by law.

 

Republic Act No. 9369 states that this certification must be submitted to the joint congressional oversight committee (JCOC) three months before the election, or last Feb. 9.

 

Former senator Francisco Tatad claimed that the May 9 elections cannot proceed without the TECs and added that the security measures put into place were token efforts without real worth.

 

"May compliance di umano pero they have purposely stripped the voter's receipt of all its security features. Walang date and time stamp, walang precinct number. Nabawasan yung evidentiary value nung dokumento," Tatad said. — Rie Takumi, APG, GMA News