Vergara protests Baguio City poll process, PCOS, results

By Dexter A. See

BAGUIO CITY -- Rep. Bernardo Vergara who placed third in Monday’s election is questioning the integrity of the PCOS-managed voting process for the congressional race, saying the election result may have been tainted by pre-programmed electronic manipulation.

           

In a 3-cornered race for the city’s lone congressional district, councilor Nicasio Aliping (Independent) garnered 30,242, businessman Mark Go (LP) got 28,226, and reelectionist Rep. Vergara (UNA-Timpuyog ti Baguio) polled 18,592 votes.

Speaking before media reporters yesterday, Vergara echoed the post-election sentiment of the leadership of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) who have also aired deep misgivings over certain electronically-instigated irregularities that marred the recently held elections.

           

“Mukhang na-hocus-pcos tayong lahat dito,” Vergara said in dismay, adding poll data may have been manipulated from a pre-programmed system of electronically run “dagdag-bawas” operation .

           

At the national level, UNA expressed alarm when informed that a Smartmatic official has manipulated data from the unofficial count being posted by the Comelec citizen’s arm, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting.

The electronically manipulated vote-count tally was said to have resulted in “double counting”.

 Like his UNA national level counterparts, Vergara aired suspicions of electronic manipulation, which he termed as a PCOS-operated “dagdag-bawas” operation, an election practice that marred past Philippine electoral process on the manual voting system.

Under this scheme, Vergara said that the “hocus-pcos” operation carried out the vote-shaving and vote-adding process during election day while voting was going on and during the transmission stage which was noted to have stalled from 10 p.m. that day all through the wee hours of the morning.

“My votes may have been electronically shaved by about 10,000 votes and electronically added to the running total of a candidate-beneficiary’s vote,” he said.

“Lahat tayo na-biktima ng “hocus-pcos”,” said,  “reason why we should get to the bottom of these, especially amid reports of similar electronic vote-shaving operations were carried out in other places.

To bolster his public suspicion, Vergara related his personal experience of having been approached by a political operator on April 15 this year who offered to “sell” a software program that can add 10,000 votes to his total which will be shaved from another candidate.

“Right off, I rejected that man’s offer, telling him that I won my elections on the merit. He may have offered the same arrangement to another candidate,” Vergara said, adding that he will identify the alleged political operator in a proper complaint filed at the proper time before a proper forum.

Vergara also cited other incidents that seem to bolster his public suspicion on the integrity of Monday’s voting, and a growing belief that vote-shaving operations have been done to frustrate the genuine judgment of the city’s electorate for the contested House seat.

“Reports have it that a PCOS technician, instead of the voters themselves, was doing the ballot-insertion into the PCOS machine. Why was this allowed? Why must a technician perform this exclusive function of the voter as mandated by the law and as called for in COMELEC resolutions?” Vergara asked.

“If there are serious doubts on the integrity of the PCOS system, a manual counting of the ballots, as cast on Election Day, should bring out the truth, and put these matters to rest,” he stressed. “Biktima na nga tayo, magpapaka-pipi at bulag pa tayo sa mga nangyayari.”

He revealed that Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan, who won on a measly 4,500 vote margin, will pursue the electoral case of bringing out the truth. “I owe it to our constituents to fight for their democratic right in choosing their leaders freely” he said, emphasizing that valid questions on the integrity of the elections deserve truthful answers.

“Huwag tayong magpapaloko, magpapalinlang, at magpapaka-tanga sa pandarayang nangyayari,” he stressed.

Vergara also disclosed that pre-election surveys conducted by Timpuyog and UNA have consistently projected a 25% margin of victory for him against his closest pursuers. Domogan’s pre-poll ratings posted even higher vote majorities. Their ratings continued to rise as of their last survey on May 10, 2013.

“Nakakagulat na biglang ang survey ay binaligtad ng “hocus-PCOS” Oeration on election day! Ganun ang misteryong nangyari,” he said.