CONSLA Partylist Files Petition at SC for Allege May 2016 Manipulation of Votes

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The CONSLA (Confederation of Non-Stock Savings and Loan Associations) party-list, one of the 115 party-list groups accredited by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to participate in the May 2016 elections, recently filed with the Supreme Court in Manila on Wednesday, December 14, 2016, a Petition-in-Intervention to the case filed by Atty. Eduardo V. Bringas', Bishop Reuben M. Abante's, and Moses C. Rivera's petition for mandamus to compel the COMELEC to order an independent and thorough investigation of the discrepancies between the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Council for Responsible Voting's (PPCRV) results which were obtained from the Transparency Server and the COMELEC's canvassing to clarify what happened in the aftermath of the May 9, 2016 National Elections.

On May 10, 2016 at 11:00 a.m., PPCRV's own Twitter account, @PPCRV_2016, showed that CONSLA was 14th overall with 523,753 votes. An hour after, or at 12:00 noon, CONSLA maintained its 14th position, with its votes increasing to 555,896 votes.

Surprisingly, however, COMELEC's own canvassing results eventually showed CONSLA failing to obtain even half of the votes twitted by PPCRV through its Twitter account, as CONSLA only garnered a total of 213, 814 votes.

CONSLA's missing votes could be a case of outright negligence on the part of COMELEC and PPCRV, or could have been a deliberate effort to rob CONSLA of its seat in the 17th Congress.

When PPCRV was questioned about the discrepancies, the CONSLA Party-list received replies that only led to more questions which further eroded the credibility of PPCRV's Quick Count. Meanwhile, the COMELEC, except for the statement that CONSLA Party-list should comply with Rule 34, Section 4 of its Rules of Procedure in prosecuting election offenses, has remained silent about the issue.

Many are thinking that this could be a concerted effort to conceal what actually transpired on election day, and a very real effort to suppress the truth. How about you, what do you think really happened on those days? Come to think of it, the CONSLA party-list is not the only candidate or group that seemed to have been complaining similar issues with both COMELEC and PPCRV. Could it be that the vote counting process was the weak part of the National Elections here in the Philippines?

The CONSLA party-list represents the marginalized sectors of the Phil society - soldiers, policemen, teachers, market vendors, mine workers, employees & workers. They would have easily kept their silence but more than anything else, they feel that they owe it to the Filipino people for the truth to be known so that the sanctity of our votes are upheld and respected. The facts and circumstances surrounding the issue should be investigated so that necessary electoral reforms will be implemented to prevent future discrepancies.

The people deserve to know what really happened during the vote counting so we could finally be at ease if indeed all the winners that emerged out from the national elections rightfully also deserve their win.