Cebu recount bares PCOS discrepancies

Beware of this mobile text, circulating from (0935) 5585760: “Globe Advisory: As a Loyal Postpaid Subscriber, you are eligible for a P500 credit limit increase. To avail, TxT 500, send to (2906) 7119576.”

It’s clearly a scam to rip off the gullible. Feigning as official from Globe Telecoms, it comes not from the telco’s usual four-digit number for advisories but from a cheap SIM. Texting “500” to the send-to number that begins with “2”, Globe’s code for “pasa-load”, automatically would bill the post-paid subscriber P500.

The National Telecoms Commission should jail the scammers.

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The 2011 assassination of Palawan veterinarian-environmentalist-broadcaster Gerry Ortega was an injustice. Accusing ex-governor Joel Reyes and brother Mario was another inequity, according to the Court of Appeals. It nullified the other week the prosecutors’ filing of murder raps against the two. That the case has dragged this long with no conviction is the ultimate unfairness.

Lapses by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima led to the twist. A special division of five appellate justices ruled that she had abused her power in creating a second case-review panel that pressed the Reyeses’ indictment. Allegedly it suited de Lima’s preconception of the brothers’ guilt. A first panel that she had formed too twice found no proof to implicate them. The justification for constituting a second panel was “new evidence.” It consisted of telco records of text exchanges between Joel and the confessed hit-squad leader, but no actual text transcripts.

By consequence of the CA ruling, the trial court’s warrants for the Reyeses’ arrest have been voided. Still there’s no sign of the trial thence proceeding against the arrested gunman, the lookout, and ringleader Rodolfo Edrad alias “Bumar”. De Lima and the Reyeses’ lawyer publicly have been sniping at each other about legalities. De Lima insists the manhunt for the Reyeses must go on while she prepares to elevate the CA decision to the Supreme Court. The counsel rebuts that nabbing the two would negate the essence of the CA exculpation. De Lima wails that the Reyeses employed “foul tactics” to wangle the CA ruling, which the defense dares her to detail. An earlier division of three appellate justices also had cleared the Reyeses, but a plea for reconsideration automatically moved the issue to the five-man body.

Politics has tainted the case from the start, the Reyeses’ camp cries. It was to their political foe Puerto Princesa mayor Edward Hagedorn that the killers had surrendered with much publicity. In a press meeting gang boss Bumar averred that their text exchanges were about a P500,000-payoff, which Joel instructed him to collect from Mario. Asked about the bundle of cash, he said he had misplaced it. The guy swore to be decently employed as Joel’s bodyguard, yet was unfamiliar with the latter’s home, and had warrants for earlier charges of murder and rape. Meanwhile Ortega’s family and colleagues await elusive justice.

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In Manila the other week, election lawyer Romy Macalintal dared critics of the precinct count optical scanners to put up or shut up. Said he, unless and until they can show that even just ten ballots from the over 35 million cast in Election 2010 were accidentally or deliberately credited to another candidate, they must hold their peace this Election 2013.

That same week in Cebu island commenced the manual recount of last 2010’s voting for mayor of Compostela town. From the first PCOS cluster of four precincts alone in Barangay Poblacion, there were not only ten but 1,254 ballots miscounted for contenders Ritchie Wagas and Joel Quiño. The recount had loser ex-mayor Wagas leading the sitting Quiño.

The court had ordered the vote recount, overseen by the clerk. There were 21 stray and eight rejected ballots. Initial outcome is shown by the table below.

The PCOS machine wrongly credited votes to both Wagas and Quiño, with the discrepancies favoring the latter in the four precincts.

Blindly defending the integrity of the PCOS, the Comelec had ignored Wagas’s protests, so he sought court relief. He recalled first suspecting fraud when, of the 34 precinct clusters, electronic Election Returns (ERs) were transmitted only from two. Investigating further, he noticed that the serial numbers of the PCOS machines mismatched those stated in the ERs.

Quiño’s lawyer announced to have the recount nullified, for inconsistency with Comelec rules. He said there were only 531 ballots in the court recount, when the PCOS-generated ERs stated 788 ballots cast. “So where are the other ballots?” he demanded. “Why are the recounted ballots not authenticated? In other words, the integrity of the ballots counted actually has been compromised.”

The court clerk said her job was only to physically recount the votes in the ballot box, not to appraise the ballots. Besides, it’s only the first of 34 boxes, so too early to total.

Wagas disavowed any intention of wresting the mayoralty from Quiño, whose term ends on June 30. He only wants the truth to out.

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Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).

E-mail: jariusbondoc@gmail.com