BBM Quick Count Center Head Atty. Jose Amor Amorado (left and Marcos’ campaign manager Jonathan Dela Cruz (right) file a complaint against the officials of Smartmatic at the Commission on Elections Law Department, Manila.
(UNTV News)
MANILA, Philippines — The camp of vice presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has filed a complaint before the Commission on Elections Law Department against the officials of Smartmatic in relation to the unauthorized script alteration controversy.
Abakada partylist representative Jonathan Dela Cruz who is a campaign adviser of Marcos stands as the complainant.
Dela Cruz argues that Smartmatic officials violated certain provisions in the Automated Elections System Law when they altered the program of the transparency server.
“These are to our mind patent violations and breach of protocol of the Automated Election Law and the rules of COMELEC,” as argued by Dela Cruz.
“It is stated in Article 29 of the Automated Elections Law that you cannot do anything or add something to the system even to the results and that is a clear violation,” he added.
Respondents in the complaint are Marlon Garcia and Elie Moreno, the project manager and project director of Smartmatic respectively.
Also included in the complaint is a certain Neil Banigued, a member of Smartmatic’s Technical Support Team and Rouie Peñalba who is an I.T Officer of COMELEC.
“Apparently, he gave the password to Marlon Garcia. That is why they were able to open the system. On the other hand, Peñalba is saying he did not authorize Marlon Garcia. So, let them talk it among themselves,” BBM Quick Count Center Head, Atty Jose Amor Amorado told reporters.
Aside from the correction made to the script around 7:30 pm of May 9, Dela Cruz is also questioning why the server was not anymore receiving transmitted elections results by 10 in the evening.
“If the results that come out of this unofficial partial count which is already 96% will vary from the official canvass there will be a problem even if it is unofficial,” Dela Cruz said in a statement.
“What other things did happen that may impact the result of the elections?” he asked.
The poll body has stated before that a formal investigation will be conducted on the matter.
Meanwhile, Marcos’ supporters gathered in front of COMELEC while Dela Cruz was filing the complaint.
The senator’s camp has also submitted a letter to the commission asking that an audit be made to the systems that were used in the elections.
(VICTOR COSARE/UNTV News)
The post BBM camp files a complaint before the COMELEC against the executives of Smartmatic appeared first on UNTV News.