Comelec suspends recount of Angeles Mayoral votes

ANGELES CITY, Philippines  – The Second Division of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has ordered the suspension of the revision of mayoral votes cast in this city in last year’s May elections amid alleged tampered ballots.

The recount of votes, petitioned by former mayor Francis Nepomuceno who lost to incumbent Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan, started last week.

The recount would involve some 20 percent of ballot boxes from 37 contested precincts here that were brought to the Comelec central office earlier this month.   

The Comelec has informed Pamintuan that the revision of ballots was suspended due to “massive tampering, mainly double shading, or shading of both my name and Nepomuceno’s, resulting in spoilage of the ballots.”    

In a press conference, Pamintuan said four ballot boxes were opened and “there was indication indeed of cheating.”

“But the cheating apparently occurred after the elections, during and within the 46 days that Nepomuceno remained in office after his defeat in the elections,” he added.

With the alleged tampering of ballots slated for recount, Comelec revision officers suggested that they examine instead the compact flash cards (CFCs) from the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines used in the contested precincts, but Nepomuceno’s lawyers objected to this. 

The CFCs contain the image of the original ballots used during the elections.

“Only the ballots which favored Nepomuceno were not spoiled,” Pamintuan said.

He cited the case of ballots from Barangay Malabanas where his official vote of 479 was brought down to only 95 during the initial recount.

“Nepomuceno originally got 180 votes, but the recount increased this to 195. The stray ballots were originally at 10 ballots, but became 388 after the recount,” he said.

In his petition for the vote recount, Nepomuceno accused Pamintuan of vote buying and “illegal deals” and that void ballots were allegedly scanned and counted by PCOS machines in favor of Pamintuan.     

Nepomuceno also alleged “automated cheating by mis-scanning, miscounting and mis-appreciation of the shaded ovals, including pre-programmed transmission of manufactured and doctored, distorted and pre-determined election results.”

Pamintuan, however, said Nepomuceno’s claim was “technically impossible,” adding that Nepomuceno “actually questions the entire automated elections, which were otherwise hailed as the most efficient system used so far, resulting in the speediest and most peaceful Philippine elections ever.”

Pamintuan said Nepomuceno’s complaint virtually questioned “the integrity of all the teachers who served during the elections, and even his own poll watchers – none of whom raised any case of irregularity during the elections.”

After the May 2010 elections, Pamintuan said Nepomuceno remained at city hall for 46 more days with the ballot boxes used in the elections under the custody of the treasurer’s office.

“They were also the ones who identified the supposed questionable precincts – the precincts which they have tampered with precisely,” he alleged.