THE Confederation of Non-Stock Savings and Loan Associations (Consla), now the Alliance of Non-Stock Savings and Loan Institutions (Ansli) stood firm on its allegation of vote manipulation during the last election, saying that its evidence is unassailable.
Retired Col. Ricardo L. Nolasco Jr. Consla party list’s first nominee, said both the Commission on Elections and its citizen arm, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting are duty-bound to explain not only to its supporters but also to the Filipino people the discrepancy in their canvassing of votes for the sake of a transparent and truthful elections.
“How can votes canvassed by the PPCRV from the Comelec Transparency Server, which essentially are the same votes canvassed by the Comelec in its official canvass, churn out completely different results?” asked Nolasco, a multi-awarded and bemedalled officer who served the military for almost 30 years.
Nolasco was referring to the conflicting results released by the PPCRV and the Comelec with regard to the total number of votes it received during the last May 9 elections.
The former Air Force official said the final official tally of votes by Comelec showed that it garnered only a total of 213,814 votes and ranked number 54.
However, based on the PPCRV’s quick count that was shown on its Twitter feed as of May 11, 2016, Consla had already garnered 555,896 votes as of May 11, 2016.
The Comelec results, he said, came as a surprise to Consla party-list because statistics-wise, it could have easily garnered votes that are double or even triple that number.
Nolasco noted that Consla, whose primary advocacy is to empower Filipinos through self-help and micro entrepreneurship, represents a million-strong group of men and women who are members of the 58 non-stock savings and loan associations.
Their members, he added, belong to the marginalized sectors of the military, police, teachers, market vendors, employees and workers of the government and private sectors such as call centers, malls, oil refineries, mines and other industries who also have their families, dependents and friends who signed individual Manifesto of support to Consla party-list.
He also underscored the overwhelming reception and support of marginalized groups and voters located as far as Calayan Island in the north, Kalinga Province, Cagayan, Isabela, Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur, Pangasinan, Cavite, Batangas, Rizal, Bicol region, and Davao with whom they had the privilege to present the party-list’s seven-point social and economic reforms agenda with the initiative of providing financial empowerment at the grassroots of Philippine economy via the propagation of non-stock savings and loan associations that will provide financial assistance to spur the growth of micro, small and medium enterprises and other community-based livelihood projects as the focal point.
Nolasco said the group’s call for an investigation by the Comelec of the discrepancy was based on a “reliable third-party information” showing indications of “irregularities” in the canvass of votes in the May 2016 election for party-list representatives and of the overwhelming support of marginalized groups.
Nolasco was referring to the sworn-affidavit executed by Arnold Arriola of the Buhay Party-list, also a party-list candidate in the election, attesting to the anomalous result of the May 9 election.
In his sworn affidavit that he voluntarily executed, Arriola attested to the fact that on or about 10:40 p.m. on May 9, 2016, he was able to take photographs of the partial and unofficial votes for party-list groups generated by the PPCRV Quick Count.
Based on his statements, he managed to take the photographs as Rommel Bernardo of the PPCRV browsed through the results of the canvassing of votes for party-list groups on his workstation and showed them to him.
One of Arriola’s photos shows that Consla garnered 342,513 votes from 68,626 clustered precincts, results of which were culled from the Comelec Transparency Server.
The same photo also shows that Consla ranked number 17 among 115 contending party-list organizations with the stage of completion of transmissions stated to be at 74.18 percent.
From thereon, Consla garnered more votes as the Quick Count progressed.
Based on tweets posted on PPCRV’s official Twitter account (@PPCRV_2016) on the following day, May 10, 2016, 11:00 a.m.,Consla ranked 14th overall with 523,753 votes while a subsequent tweet an hour later or 12:00pm showedConsla securing 555,896 votes.
Consla through its lawyer Rodolfo San Diego has filed a letter-complaint with the PPCRV demanding an explanation on the discrepancy.
It has also filed a petition before the Comelec seeking an immediate probe of the anomalous election results for the partylist contest.
“In the spirit of transparency and in faithful compliance with your avowed duty of protecting the votes of the Filipinos, we request you provide an explanation how Consla secured 555,896 votes as of May 11, 2016 based on your Twitter feed… and the total number of votes Consla obtained at the time you terminated your quick count operations,” the letter-complaint read.
