Indignant supporters of former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. lashed out at the Commission on Election (Comelec) for making a “mockery of the judicial process and a travesty of electoral reforms.”
Marcos’ camp said the stripping activity conducted by the Comelec on Vote Counting Machines (VCMs), “blatantly defied the order of the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), to preserve and safeguard all election materials and equipment used in the May elections.”
Some 150 supposedly unused VCMs were found to have tampered with corrupted SD cards during the 14-hour stripping activity conducted by the Comelec at its warehouse in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.
In proceeding with its plan to strip supposedly unused VCMs in view of their release to Smartmatic-TIM, Jose Amor Amorado, counsel of Marcos, said the Comelec disregarded the Precautionary Protective Order (PPO) issued by the PET to preserve all election materials used in the past elections.
Amorado also questioned the apparent haste to conduct the stripping of the VCMs by the Comelec, Smartmatic and the camp of former Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo as they allegedly carried out the activity until 12 midnight, on Wednesday.
“This is a mockery of the judicial process which is tantamount to contempt of court and a travesty of electoral reforms because we are fighting for truth and clean and credible elections. There was undue haste seen as erasing possible evidence. We find it extremely incredible why Comelec could openly defy such a lawful order of the highest court of the land just to accommodate Smartmatic and appeared to be on a rush to turn over the VCMs to Smartmatic,” Amorado said.
The Comelec had earlier decided to grant the request of Smartmatic to recall 1,365 VCMs which it unilaterally declared to have neither been deployed and/or unused in the May elections.