INCUMBENT congressman Glenn A. Chong of the Lone District of Biliran is far from accepting defeat and is actively pushing for the investigation of electoral fraud complaints in the May 10 automated elections that resulted in the presumptive proclamation of his political rival, third-term governor, Rogelio Espina.
He denied an earlier report that came out in the broadsheet, Manila Bulletin (May 18, 2010) which said he had conceded to his rival. Chong stressed he will exhaust all legal means to nullify Espina’s proclamation by the Provincial Board of Canvassers in Biliran, headed by lawyer Richard Alvin Japson, last May 11.
He will lodge a protest before the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET), aside from the case filed before the Commission on Elections.
Just as the congressman’s lawyers were manifesting their pre-proclamation protest, a brief power outage hit the provincial capitol in Naval. When power was restored a few minutes later, Japson immediately proceeded to proclaim Espina as winner of the congressional race with 40,010 votes as against Chong’s 39,649.
This prompted voters in the island province to stage a prayer rally in protest of the results, which ran for four days until Chong finally called on the people to end their protest while he prepared to use all legal means to settle the issue. The people are back again in the streets calling for a manual recount.
Within those four days, a delivery truck was intercepted containing two PCOS machines and two units of BGAN (transmission facility used for election results) from the town of Kawayan – an Espina stronghold — casting doubt on Japson’s previous assurance to a team composed of civil society groups that no machine was allocated for the municipality as back-up. The PCOS machines also turned out to be the two missing from the total that was turned over to the province prior to the May 10 elections, but were unaccounted for when they were returned to the Comelec regional office in Tacloban City.
Chong is currently attending the hearing of the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms to look into reports of massive fraud, especially at the local levels. He is set to confront SMARTMATIC-TIM, which partnered with the Commission on Elections for the conduct of the first automated elections in the country, and present evidence that was gathered to back claims of vote manipulation in his district.
He is ready to challenge Smartmatic, which remains steadfast in its claim the automated electoral system they put in place was cheat-proof, to allow the manual counting of ballots only in precincts with questionable results and where physical evidence could be presented.
“If they (Smartmatic) stand by the integrity of their system, then they should have no problem if a manual count is undertaken to prove their claims,” the congressman pointed out.
“I am ready to put my name and reputation on the line and challenge Smartmatic to put their name on the line and conduct a manual recount to see if there is no material difference in the results, at least in Biliran.” he added.
Chong said he could not turn his back on Biliranons, who have taken up the fight and continue to demand that the true will of the people be reflected in the results of the last electoral contest.
Aside from the rally, citizens have accepted the responsibility of watching over the ballots in the custody of the eight different municipalities in the province to ensure these will be kept safe in case a manual recount is allowed.
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