Team DailyPedia
Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal believes that programming the VCMs (Vote Counting Machines) to favor just one candidate is impossible and that rumors of the Liberal Party planning to impeach presumptive president Rodrigo Duterte are too extreme.
When Congresswoman Leni Robredo overtook Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. in the vice presidential race, the latter called for a stoppage in the unofficial counting of the ballots as he believes widespread cheating had been conducted.
Macalintal, in an interview with GMA’s News to Go program last May 11, however said that since all the votes for president, vice president, and other candidates are only fed into one SD card, if data is altered for one position, then data for all the other positions would also have been altered.
Macalintal explained, “Kung saan nanggagaling ang boto ng pangulo, doon din nangagagaling ang boto ng vice president and other candidates. Hindi puwedeng sabihin na may daya yung kay Leni na SD card at walang daya yung kay Duterte… Kung may daya kay Duterte, may daya kay Leni. Kung malinis yung kay Duterte ay malinis din yung kay Leni at ganoon din sa other candidates.” (The data source for the president are the same source for that of the vice president and other candidates. You can’t say that Leni’s votes on the SD card are tainted while [Rodrigo] Duterte’s are not. If there’s cheating on Duterte’s results, then there’s also cheating on Leni’s. If Duterte’s is clean, then Leni’s and the other candidates’s results are also clean.)
The burden of proving election fraud would lie with Marcos. If Marcos would ever file an election protest, Macalintal explained that the senator would need to prove that the discrepancies per polling precincts were legitimate and that if the lead of one candidate over another is in the thousands, pinning the blame on malfunctioning VCMs would be hard to prove.
“Kung malaki na ang lamang at sasabihing mali ang bilang ng [VCM], imposible yun. Parang sumusuntok sila sa buwan, yung mga ganyang uri ng protesta, yan ang protesta ng mga taong hindi marunong tumanggap ng pagkatalo,” (If the lead is large and they say that the VCM tallies are wrong, that would be impossible. It would be like punching the moon. These forms of protest are the protests of a person who cannot accept losing.) Macalintal said.
The lawyer also believes that the Marcos’s camp’s claims of a Duterte impeachment are a mere “political statement,” that only serves to divide the people.
“Yung nanalo nga humihingi na ng unity, bakit ganoon naman ang sasabihin ni Mr. Marcos? Hintayin muna natin kung ano talaga magiging resulta,” (The winner himself is calling for unity, so why is Mr. Marcos saying these things? Let’s just wait for the final results.) said Macalintal.
An impeachment case against a president can only be filed when he commits something questionable when he is already acting as the president, Duterte hasn’t even been proclaimed yet. “Hintayin natin kung magkakaroon ng appropritate grounds for impeachment. Yang sinasabi ni Mr. Marcos ay political statement lamang na hindi makakatulong sa stability ng ating bansa na katatapos pa lang ng halalan,” (Let’s wait and see if there will be appropriate grounds for impeachment. The things Mr. Marcos is saying are just a political statement that will not help the stability of a country that just went through an election.) explained Macalintal. “Dapat ang mga kandidato ang magbibigay ng kapayapaan sa ating mamamayan at hindi sila ang mag-create ng anumang situation na maglalagay sa alanganin na naman sa ating halalan.” (It should be the candidates themselves who should bring peace to the people and not create situations wherein elections are rendered questionable.)
