Pacquiao to Comelec: Poll integrity must be free from doubt

Presidential candidate Senator Manny Pacquiao on Friday said the Commission on Elections (Comelec) must ensure the integrity of the upcoming May 11 elections amid data breach claims.

"Dapat sikapin ng Comelec na kahit 1% na duda ng taumbayan, 'yung integrity ng Comelec, ng election ay pangalagaan natin dahil mahirap 'yung may duda ang taumbayan," Pacquiao said in a statement.

(The Comelec must strive to preserve its integrity and the elections, even if the doubt of the people is just 1%, because it is difficult if the people have doubts.)

"Kailangan pag-aralan nila nang mabuti kung ano 'yung proteksyon na magagawa nila, para hindi mapasukan ng sindikato, especially 'yung mga machine na ginagamit sa election," he added.

(Comelec should carefully study the security it should put in place to protect the machines that will be used in the elections from syndicates.)

Senator Imee Marcos has said a security breach occurred within the operations of Smartmatic, where personal information, ledgers, photos of their office, contact persons in the Comelec, might have been hacked by a syndicate group.

"Andoon lahat sa Facebook eh, nakakapagtaka eh. Kaya medyo kinakabahan tayo to that degree, the depth and breadth of the data that has been released, that is still publicly available as far as I know. Nandoon nakita ko, and we may be involved with a criminals' hacking syndicate, yang XFOS," she said.

Comelec said it would wait for the report from the National Bureau of Investigation as regards the alleged infringement, while Smartmatic, the poll technology provider for the May 2022 automated elections, denied Marcos' allegations.—LDF, GMA News