There’s evidence of poll fraud, Loren insists

Vice President Noli de Castro benefited from "dagdag-bawas," or vote padding and shaving, in last year’s vice presidential election, former senator Loren Legarda claimed yesterday.

However, Legarda said she has great faith and confidence in the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal’s (PET), to decide on the matter.

Speaking on the second day of the PET’s recounting of questionable ballots Tuesday, Legarda said the discovery of more polling precincts in Balindong, Lanao del Sur was one "obvious evidence" that dagdag-bawas had supplied votes to De Castro.

"The dubiousness of the ERs (election returns) from the ballot boxes retrieved from Congress was established when they were compared with their counterpart copies belonging to the Commission on Elections (Comelec)," she said.

She had counted 34 of 50 election returns from Balindong bearing "patently false figures favoring De Castro."

Last Monday, Legarda said copies of the ERs bearing the same serial numbers should be identical to one another regardless of whether the ER copies are from the House of Representatives, the Comelec, the political parties or from the National Movement for Free Elections.

The discrepancies in the ERs are "foolproof" evidence that electoral fraud had been committed in favor of De Castro before and after the May 10 election last year, she added.

Legarda said the ERs from the House, which are being used in the recount, should be officially compared with other copies like those from the Comelec and Namfrel to avert a travesty of justice.

"Lest we forget, there had been persistent reports that last January and February, operatives of the administration had sneaked inside Congress reportedly to tamper with the contents of the ballot boxes being kept there," she said.

Legarda said many astute observers of Philippine elections have remarked that the delaying tactics which were used by De Castro’s camp seemed to have kept open the "window of opportunity" to tamper with the ballots inside the House.

"These reports of ballot-box tampering right inside Congress are somehow being borne out by the falsity of many of the ERs examined from Balindong," she said.

Legarda cited reports that three months after the House proclamation of the winners in the 2004 elections, a group hired by the administration started printing ERs and switched them with the genuine ERs in some of the ballot boxes being kept in the lower chamber.

"The target of the operation was ERs from the Muslim Mindanao area and surrounding provinces, where the alleged vote padding was done only on the Certificates of Canvass," she said, quoting the report.

"Apparently, the ER-switching was meant to fix the records to pass future scrutiny. The figures in the new ERs, when added up, would now be consistent with the totals in the certificates of canvass."

Legarda said in the 34 polling precincts that she cited in her protest against De Castro, she won over De Castro based on the copies of ERs she secured from the Comelec.

"If this is not a clear case of dagdag-bawas undertaken to prop my rival’s false claim to office, I don’t know what is," she said.

Legarda said it is obvious that fraud was committed when the ballot boxes at the House were opened because the ERs, compared to the certified true copies of the ERs in their possession, showed different results.

"The election returns have been reproduced, with the same serial numbers, and with the exact same specifications as the originals," she said.

"It is obvious that the same serial numbers were reproduced (on) more than seven copies. However, I cannot pass judgment and say it is the Comelec.

"It can be the printers in cahoots with the unscrupulous politicians. It is possible that (Comelec Chairman Benjamin) Abalos does not know anything about this.

"It is clear that it is the administration (that) is the one doing this cheating and the cover-up being done. It is favorable to them."

Legarda said there is evidence that post-election fraud was committed to cover up the cheating in the elections.

"I am outraged, scandalized. It is blatant and ruthless," she said.

"I cannot find the words. This is a blatant disregard of our democratic process. The bulwark of democracy is our electoral process.

"Elections should be honest, fair, orderly and meaningful. But if they have prostituted the electoral process and tampered with the results, not only before, during, but also after the elections, what do you make of our democracy?

"I cannot keep quiet about it. Because if the evidence of electoral fraud stares you in the face, and if you have the truth with you, you cannot keep quiet about it. How can my opponent sleep at night if he knows what they are doing? I can go on and on. These are facts. These are documents." — Jose Rodel Clapano, Sandy Araneta