Former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. claimed irregularities after several ballots were discovered wet while audit logs disappeared during the first day of recount of votes for the vice presidential position during the 2016 national elections where Marcos lost to Vice President Ma. Leonor “Leni” Robredo.
Marcos said all ballots from 4 out of 42 precincts in Bato, Camarines Sur were doused recently which made the votes “illegible.”
“They’ve only been recently wet. If they were wet during election day, siguro natuyo na iyun — hindi naman siguro 2 years na basa iyun. May nagbasa,” Marcos told reporters.
“Hindi namin maintindihan papaano [nabasa], imposible naman siguro na dalawang taong basa ‘yan. Palagay ko, kailangan talaga pag-aralan kung paano nangyari ‘yan. Ibig sabihin kasi kung may nagbasa, may nagbukas nung ballot box.”
In defense, Robredo’s camp said the ballots were already wet even before they were transported to the Supreme Court for the recount, claiming the ballots could have been wet due to the storm.
“There’s no sabotage, wala ‘yun. ‘Wag niyong ire-report ‘yun, fake news ‘yun. Kawawa naman ‘yung mga taga-Camarines Sur,”Robredo’s election lawyer Romulo Macalintal said.
Marcos also questioned the missing 39 out of 40 audit logs in the same town.
“Clearly, somebody, binuksan ang ballot box, kinuha ang audit log bago ini-seal ulit,” he said.
“We’re going to have to find a way to recover those audit logs somehow… Baka naman (perhaps) it’s possible that those audit logs are still in the database of some other computer.”
Macalintal responded by saying that the missing audit logs will not affect the manual recount.
“That’s not a determining factor na nagkaroon ng anomalies,” he said.
“If ever, these are only technical defects or technicalities which will never affect the genuineness and accuracy of the count.”
In June 2016, Marcos filed a complaint citing irregularities in the Robredo camp which resulted to his loss in the elections.
Robredo won the vice presidential race in the May 2016 polls with 14,418,817 votes or 263,473 more than Marcos’ 14,155,344 votes.
The recount, which started Monday morning, covers three provinces chosen by Marcos – Camarines Sur, Iloilo, and Negros Oriental – as per Rule 65 of the 2010 PET rules.
