SC orders Comelec to comment on petition to prosecute Smartmatic execs in president, VP erratic votes upsurge

The Supreme Court of the Philippines building in Manila, Philippines. (Photo by Mike Gonzalez / Wikimedia Commons)

MANILA—The Supreme Court (SC) has ordered the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to comment on the petition to prosecute officials of Smartmatic who allegedly tampered the Automated Election System (AES) and explain on the apparent upsurge and abrupt fall in the discrepancy of votes for the president and vice president.

During the deliberations of the en banc on Tuesday, the SC ordered the Comelec to file its comment on the petition filed by Atty. Eduardo Bringas, Bishop Reuben Abante and Moses Rivera.

Also named respondent to the case is GMA Channel 7 in view of its blow-by-blow account of the counting of votes.

The petition was filed by the group for fear of any fraud which possibly occurred during the May 9, 2016 elections.

In the vice presidential race, it was seen on the national television that Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. led in the evening of May 9, in the counting of votes against Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo.

However, when morning of May 10 came, Leni suddenly upsurged and led by as much as 200,000 votes.

In its petition filed before the SC, Bringas, Abante and Rivera asked the SC to mandate the Comelec “to explain the apparent erratic upsurge and abrupt fall in the discrepancy between the votes for the president and vice president from the May 9, 2016 7:25 p.m.; 7:45 p.m.; 8:05 p.m.; and 8:25 p.m.; specifically, where the votes came from and where they were later assigned.”

Likewise, the petitioners also asked the SC to require GMA 7 to provide all the published updates of the election results and the raw data that were received from the transparency or mirror server which shall serve as control date.

After the reported tampering of the machines inside the Comelec, the petitioners wanted Smartmatic to be directly held responsible and cause the Comelec to conduct an investigation and prosecute the conspirators to the crime.

The petitioners also prayed that the SC will order Comelec to allow the petitioners and the public to have access to the source codes and hash codes.

They also sought that once the Comelec starts with the investigation, Chairman Andres Bautista and the Commissioners who already made conclusions to the case shall recuse themselves from the investigation after they have manifested their bias to the case.

Likewise, the petitioners also asked the SC “to cause an independent and thorough investigation of the two reported incidents, directing the members and chair of the respondent Commission who already made conclusions regarding the said incidents to inhibit themselves.”y