By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573
AMOCKERY of the judicial process and a travesty of electoral reforms.
This was how the camp of former Sen. Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. described the stripping activity conducted by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on vote-counting machines (VCMs), blatantly defying the order of the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), to preserve and safeguard all election materials and equipment used in the May elections.
This developed as some 150 supposedly unused VCMs were found to have installed with corrupted SD cards during the 14-hour stripping activity conducted by the Comelec at its warehouse in Santa Rosa City, Laguna.
In proceeding with its plan to strip supposedly unused VCMs in view of their release to Smartmatic-TIM, Jose Amor Amorado, counsel for Marcos, said the poll body disregarded the Precautionary Protective Order issued by the PET to preserve all election materials used in the past elections. He also questioned the apparent haste to conduct the stripping of the VCMs by the Comelec, Smartmatic and the camp of former Liberal Party Rep. Maria Leonor G. Robredo of Camarines Sur as they carried out the activity until 12 midnight on Wednesday.
“This is a mockery of the judicial process, which is tantamount to contempt of court and a travesty of electoral reforms, because we are fighting for truth and clean and credible elections. There was undue haste seen as erasing possible evidence. We find it extremely incredible why the Comelec could openly defy such a lawful order of the highest court of the land just to accommodate Smartmatic and appeared to be on a rush to turn over the VCMs, to Smartmatic,” Amorado said.
The Comelec earlier decided to grant the request of Smartmatic to recall 1,365 VCMs, which it unilaterally declared to have neither been deployed and/or unused in the May elections.
Marcos did not participate in the stripping activity, maintaining that any move to transfer or deal with any election material or equipment must have the approval of the PET, as it has sole and exclusive jurisdiction over his election protest.
The stripping activity started at around 10:30 a.m., which was participated in by representatives from Robredo, Sen. Leila M. de Lima and former Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chairman Francis N. Tolentino.
Smartmatic’s Ellie Moreno was, likewise, present.
All boxes with complete parts and empty SD cards were repacked and set for the scheduled turnover to Smartmatic. Those with broken seals or with SD cards found to have data or were corrupted were segregated for safekeeping by the Comelec.
Comelec Executive Director Jose M. Tolentino Jr. earlier said the SD cards will not be turned over to Smartmatic.
During the stripping activity, at least 150 boxes were segregated because of defects in the seals and presence of data in the SD cards. Some VCMs had missing SD cards. 1,255 VCMs were cleared and were expected to be turned over Smartmatic on Wednesday. The next stripping activity for the remaining VCMs will be on November 2. Later in the afternoon, tension occurred between the camps of Robredo and Tolentino when the latter refused to take part in the activity beyond the initially scheduled 5 p.m. deadline. However, Robredo’s lawyer, Beng Sardillo, insisted that work be continued until 12 midnight to enable them to finish all the 1,356 VCMs.
When Tolentino’s lawyer, Ben Mabulac, strongly opposed the motion since most of their supervisors were college students and needed to go home at the allotted time, Sardillo suggested that they all leave the warehouse and just let the Comelec and Smartmatic do the stripping activity to enable them to finish all VCMs in one day.
This was again strongly opposed by Mabulac, saying her suggestion is highly irregular.
The issue was settled, Comelec Commissioner Christian Robert S. Lim called to them to proceed with the stripping until 12 midnight to “maximize the time.”
Amorado said the presence of corrupted SD cards when they are supposedly not have been deployed or used is proof that the Comelec should not have decided to release the VCMs in the first place.
“Prudence would have dictated the Comelec to wait for the PET resolution on our motion, but they did the exact opposite and even conducted the stripping activity in haste with so many violations and irregularities. We really find it highly irregular, if not criminal,” Amorado stated.