Ex-mayor reiterates: No ballot tampering
May 18, 2011
ANGELES CITY — Former mayor Francis Nepomuceno insisted Tuesday that his camp did not tamper with the contested ballot boxes in relation to the recount he filed against incumbent Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan.
“They are casting absurd allegations near to impossibility. How can we tamper with ballots when all ballot boxes are sealed, padlocked and guarded by PNP (Philippine National Police), Comelec and city treasurer’s staff?” Nepomuceno said.
He said the opening of the ballot boxes during the start of the manual recount last Monday is a confirmation of their electoral protest that they were cheated.
“As IT experts put it, na-hocus pocos kami through preprogrammed compact flash cards and massive vote buying,” he said.
Nepomuceno said these recorded instances happened massively in the local elections as stated by Representative Teddy Boy Locsin, chair of the House committee on electoral suffrage, and not in the national level.
“How can they say the ballots were tampered with when all security measures were enforced? There was the presence of the PNP, CSU, private security guards and there was 24-hr CCTV monitoring which is under their control for almost a year. Only they have the unlimited access,” he said.
According to Nepomuceno, the sealing of the ballot boxes was held September 23 and 24 and were declared intact, padlocked and sealed.
“In fact, there were no objections from both parties. The retrieval of the ballot boxes last May 4 was even escorted by the PNP, Comelec and both parties. Again, the ballot boxes were intact,” he added.
“The recount committee proceeded as scheduled because the boxes were intact,” he said.
Panic
Nepomuceno also said that when the true votes in favor of him were revealed, the camp of Pamintuan “panicked” and made allegations of tampering to delay the recount and revision of votes.
“Kung sinasabi nilang kami ang nandaya, eh bakit kami ang natalo? Kaya nga kami ang protestant. At huwag nilang idadamay si President Noynoy dahil sya ay tunay na binoto ng sambayanang Pilipino,” the former mayor said.
Massive
“The tampering is so massive, mainly involving double shading, that the Comelec officials themselves said this is the first time they witnessed such massive tampering of ballots,” reported Patrick Sibug, one of the witnesses of the recount for Pamintuan.
The tampering, Sibug said, was uncovered in ballot boxes coming from the precincts in Barangays Sapangbato, Pampang and Sta. Teresita, which are all bailiwicks of Pamintuan.
The double shading, or the shading of both the names of Pamintuan and Nepomuceno, was also noted in unusual number of ballots in the first four ballot boxes opened by the Comelec on Monday (May 16), prompting election officials to discontinue the counting because of massive tampering.
When the opening and counting of the other ballot boxes resumed Tuesday, the same pattern was noted.
Pamintuan said on Monday that the tampering was meant to shave his votes and pad the votes of Nepomuceno.
In a press conference, Pamintuan accused the Nepomuceno camp of tampering the ballots while the boxes were in the custody of the latter, during the 46 days from May 10 to June 30 that Nepomuceno was still mayor.
‘Cheating’
Pamintuan recalled that 10 civilian security unit (CSU) members assigned to guard the ballot boxes during that time have been pulled out allegedly upon orders of Nepomuceno. The guards, he added, were moved to the Agriculture Office, a building away from the Treasurer’s Office where the ballot boxes were stored.
“In their affidavits, they reported that power has been cut in the city hall except in the Treasurer’s Office,” Pamintuan said.
He said he will produce the affidavit executed by the CSU unit during that time to bolster his claim that the ballots were tampered under Nepomuceno’s custody.
The mayor reiterated that cheating indeed occurred, “but the cheating happened after the elections.”
‘After the elections’
A school principal, who served as an elections inspector but requested anonymity, said the findings of massive ballot tampering could not have happened during the elections.
She said the Precinct Count Optical Scan machines could have rejected outright tampered and marked ballots. She agreed that tampering can only be possible after the elections.
“It is ridiculous to say that it was my camp that did the tampering, as the Nepomuceno camp has now alleged. Quite simply, why should I shave my own votes? Why should I cheat so that I will lose?” Pamintuan said.
Pamintuan earlier said the tampering is a crude operation undertaken by “simpletons” who thought they could reverse the result of the elections where he registered the biggest margin of victory in the electoral history of Angeles City.
Source: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/pampanga/local-news/2011/05/17/ex-mayor-reiterates-no-ballot-tampering-156041
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