Marcos: SD card data proves poll fraud

MANILA, Philippines - Data found in many of the SD cards retrieved from “supposedly unused” vote counting machines (VCMs) boosts the election protest against Vice President Leni Robredo, the camp of former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said yesterday.

In a statement, Marcos spokesman Victor Rodriguez said the “fact that data were found in supposed to be untouched SD cards is proof that fraud had been committed in the May elections.”

“This strengthens our position that massive fraud was indeed committed in the last elections because SD cards from unused VCMs should be empty. However, we have confirmed today that indeed they have data in them so that bolsters our position,” he said.

Rodriguez made the statement after 26 of 127 decrypted SD cards were found to have data. This was part of the stripping of 1,356 unused VCMs that would be returned to Smartmatic. 

The other 101 SD cards were not part of the decryption as they were set aside by the Senate Electoral Tribunal following a motion by former Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chairman Francis Tolentino in his election protest against Sen. Leila de Lima.

Rodriguez claimed the data in the SD cards also supported their contention that the VCMs should not have been opened or stripped until after the conclusion of Marcos’ election protest at the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET).

Marcos’ camp had earlier opposed the stripping of the unused VCMs claiming that it was in violation of the protective precautionary order issued by the PET to preserve the integrity of the ballot boxes and other equipment used in the last elections.

The Comelec argued that the VCMs were not used as they served as contingency machines during the elections so they are not covered by the PET order. – Sheila Crisostomo, Perseus Echeminada