SENATOR Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Sunday said he obtained zero votes in 113 areas in Visayas and Mindanao, bolstering his case against the Commission on Elections and Smartmatic that widespread electoral fraud took place in the May 9 elections where he ran and lost the vice presidential race.
Marcos, on his FaceBook page, appealed to the public to report to him how the massive cheating was done in these areas if they had voted for him but their votes were not counted.
Marcos, who lost by 263,000 to Vice President-elect Leni Robredo, got zero votes in 63 municipalities and three cities in 15 provinces nationwide.
The senator posted a Notice to the Public that said: “If you voted for Bongbong Marcos and belong to the following areas where he received zero votes, we ask you to send us a report via email: [email protected].”
Posted in the notice were the provinces, municipalities, barangay and the number of clustered precincts to guide those who wished to make a report.
Marcos suffered the most zero votes in 49 precincts in Lanao del Sur, 26 precincts in Maguindanao, including Mamasapano, and 14 precincts in Basilan that included two cities of Lamitan and Isabela.
It was in Lamitan City in Basilan where members of the powerful Iglesia ni Cristo protested that they were robbed of their votes for Marcos as Robredo got the most votes and the other presidential candidates, including Marcos, all obtained zero votes.
The INC members complained it would have been impossible for Marcos, who was endorsed by the INC, to get zero votes when there were three churches in the city.
The INC members practice bloc voting and heed the leadership’s decision in “unconditional unity and loyalty.”
Marcos also got zero votes in Robredo’s bailiwicks in seven municipalities of Camarines Sur and three municipalities of Sorsogon. He also obtained zero votes in the bailiwick of the ruling Liberal Party and Robredo’s running mate Manuel Roxas II in Iloilo.
He got zero votes in Baao, Bato, Calabanga, Caramoan, Lupi and Milaor, all in Camarines Sur, and in Bulan, Castilla and Prieto Diaz in Sorsogon.
But Marcos also recorded zero votes in his own bailiwicks, in four precincts in Eastern Samar, in municipalities of Hilongos and Mahaplag in Leyte also in six precincts in Matuguinao, Motiong, San Jose de Buan and Santa Margarita in Western Samar.
Marcos’ mother, former first lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos, was a native of Leyte and was the most famous “Waray.”
In a privilege speech upon the resumption of sessions on May 23, Marcos told his fellow senators: “We cannot hold false confidence that we had free and fair elections if we did not.”
“Our colleague, Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago warns us now of a garrison state where the authoritarian government feels free to manufacture numbers as they are needed.”
Marcos said: No less an authority than Abraham Lincoln reminds us: “Elections belong to the people.”
“We should listen to these words. No one, no president, no party, no backroom, no machine, no operative, has the right to thwart the will of the Filipino people. Elections belong to the people,” Marcos said.
He said no one has the right to use political advantage to influence or manipulate an election.
“And we never—ever—can let that happen…. because what’s at stake is our future,” he said.
“In this chamber, our job is to fight those who want to keep taking us backwards. Two days before the May 9th election, I said this: We must—all of us—guard against coming intimidation, manipulation, and even fraud by forces of the political status quo.”
“Again, this is not about one candidate against another, or one family versus another, or one party versus another. This is not about a foreign technology vendor scandal,” he said.
“This is about eternal vigilance,” Marcos said.
Marcos said Internet users have documented and shared video footage of cheating and other election offenses, belying the claim of Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista that the Philippines was teaching other countries the “best practices” in automated elections.
“As captured… through photos and videos, we see the same sad story in the Philippines. Vote-buying has become ever more rampant, as have been the acts of terrorism, threats and intimidation,” Marcos said.
“We have received reports of information and communications technology [ICT] companies that were engaged by candidates to boost their chances in winning the automated elections. Parts of the package included access to official voters database and vaunted ‘magic laptops’ which they claimed could tap into the Comelec’s main server.
“I brushed aside all these alleged offers as mere being hearsay until I saw it happening before my—and the country’s—very eyes on the day of elections.”
Marcos then recounted how Smartmatic’s Marlon Garcia had introduced a new, unauthorized script into the transparency server that was being used to tally the unofficial vote count a few hours after the polls closed. Over the next few hours, a one-million vote lead that he enjoyed over Robredo vanished.
“It was after this particular act of computer programming wizardry that votes for this representation started to slow down and the votes for another candidate started to accelerate—at an unprecedented and linear rate of 45,000 votes for every additional one percent of votes counted.
This is the very same Marlon Garcia who was charged with electoral sabotage for doing the very same thing during the 2013 elections.
“What are the chances that this computer programming change can be linked to the odd pattern that emerged during the PPCRV quick-count?” Marcos said.
