Comelec on alleged vote discrepancy: Who is the source of those figures?

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Tuesday decried what seems to be efforts to disseminate misinformation after discrepancy was seen in the Eleksyon 2025 votes being tallied and reported before dawn.

"Ang tatanungin ng sambayanan, kanino po ba nanggagaling 'yung figures na 'yan? Sino po ba ang naglalabas?" Comelec Chairman George Garcia said in an interview with GMA Integrated News.

"Kasi po para sa kaalaman ng lahat, uulitin ko po, mula sa presinto, ang resulta ng presinto ay pinapadala parang text messaging. Naka-group texting, pinapadala sa Comelec, sa PPCRV, sa NAMFREL, sa majority party, sa minority party, at sa media. May kanya-kanyang server po ang tawag do'n. Doon naipapadala ang result," Garcia said.

"So ibig sabihin, 'yung nakikita niyong nilalabas ng Comelec, du'n nakikita sa aming website, 'yan po ay mula sa presinto mismo. Pero unofficial po 'yan ah. Hindi po 'yan official. Unofficial po 'yan sa kasalukuyan," he added.

Garcia also explained that for example, four entities receive the same data. The other three however may not report the full data, and only do so partially.

"Pero hindi nangangahulugan na mali ang inilalabas po nila," he said.

Garcia also said that Comelec does not issue ranking of leading candidates.

"Ang Comelec po ay hindi nagsusuma-total. Wala po kaming ranking, hindi nga po namin alam kung sino ang nakalalamang, sino ang number 1, number 2, number 3, hanggang number 12 o kung sino man 'yung mga nananalo sa pagkasenador sapagkat hindi po kami puwedeng mag-ranking. Baka kasi akalain ng sambayanan ay official po 'yan," he said.

"Ngayon, kung may lumabas kaninang madaling araw, tanungin po natin, kanino ba nanggaling po 'yon?" Garcia asked.

"Kasi kung ang nakalagay lang do'n is Halalan 2025, ni walang entity nakalagay, ni wala man lang kanino nakalagay, aba'y isa lang ang ibig sabihin. May nagmi-misinform o nagmamaneobra nu'ng nilalabas na resulta para sa public perception lang. Hindi 'yan galing sa mga entities na nakatanggap talaga ng result mula sa presinto," he added.

“Ang tanungin natin, sino ba ang naglabas nu'n? Kanino ba galing yun? Kasi sure na sure hindi galing sa Comelec 'yun sapagkat wala kaming sumatotal o ranking. Hindi po namin ginagawa 'yun,” Garcia said.

(We have to ask: who released those data? What is the source? Because we are very sure such data did not come from Comelec because we don't have totals or rankings. We do not do those.)

Vote decline

Early Tuesday, media outfits discovered that partial, unofficial results reflected from the Comelec media server showed a decrease in votes despite the continuous increase in the election returns (ERs). They discovered that transmissions sent by precincts were duplicated during consolidation in the Comelec's server.

As of 1:32 a.m., reelectionist Senator Christopher “Bong” Go received a total of 26,683,453 votes. It went down to 21,599,993 at 2:11 a.m. — or more than 5 million votes.

The trend was likewise observed for Bam Aquino, who garnered 20,572,272 votes as of 1:32 a.m. It dropped to 16,750,496 at 2:11 a.m.

The votes for other candidates were as follows:

Bato dela Rosa — 20,466,823 to 16,529,816
Erwin Tulfo — 16,868,042 to 13,725,209
Kiko Pangilinan — 15,036,876 to 12,244,219
Rodante Marcoleta — 15,001,038 to 12,132,562
Ping Lacson — 14,822,400 to 12,078,310
Tito Sotto — 14,569,262 to 11,873,441
Pia Cayetano — 14,324,330 to 11,644,257
Camille Villar — 13,459,585 to 10,937,140
Lito Lapid —13,165,419 to 10,737,838
Imee Marcos — 13,084,362 to 10,645,870
 

The discrepancy could be due to an aggregation tool, GMA Integrated News' Joseph Morong said in his report based on the explanation of a Comelec official whom he did not name.

He said, according to the poll official, there is a possibility that the data Comelec sent piled up.

The poll body initially sent data from 10 precincts. Another batch of data was sent but the data from the 10 precincts was still included.

Meanwhile, Garcia explained the Comelec is sending election returns from clustered precincts and not the tallies for the votes. 

He also said the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) is set to reconvene at 10 a.m. Tuesday to accept the certificates of canvass from international posts and 83 provinces in the country, which will be counted as official votes of the candidates. —KG, GMA Integrated News

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