Marcos wishes Robredo well, but...

MANILA, Philippines – Even as it offered good wishes to Leni Robredo for being declared winner in the vice presidential race by the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC), the camp of Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said it would continue contesting the poll result, citing massive fraud.

“We congratulate incoming president Rodrigo Duterte and wish incoming vice president Robredo well, but the search for truth will continue,” Abakada party-list Rep. Jonathan de la Cruz, Marcos’ campaign consultant, told The STAR yesterday.

Lawyer George Garcia, head of Marcos’ legal team, made the same pronouncement.

They said their search for truth did not end with the conclusion of the official canvass of votes for president and vice president by lawmakers convened as the NBOC.

On Friday, the board officially declared Duterte and Robredo winners in the presidential and vice presidential elections.

De la Cruz said their group is studying legal options to compel the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and Smartmatic to subject their automated election system to scrutiny, citing discrepancies in the electronic transmission of the votes as well as reports of three million unaccounted or “missing” votes.

“This issue cropped up in the 2010, 2013 midterm election and now its ugly head has again showed, there must be a closure to this issues on discrepancies and undervoting,” De la Cruz said.

He also clarified that the Marcos camp has nothing personal against Robredo as its legal action is directed at the Comelec and Smartmatic.

Garcia, meanwhile, said the senator has asked his supporters to remain calm. Garcia added they would wait for the official proclamation of the elected president and vice president before making their next move. 

Congress has set for tomorrow the official proclamation of Duterte and Robredo as president and vice president, respectively.

“Sen. Marcos instructed us to respect the proceedings of the board,” Garcia said.

He said one of the options he may consider is the filing of an election protest. But he admitted this could prove very expensive.

If such electoral protest pushes through, it would be based on what he described as an unusually high number of “under-votes” for vice president – supposedly 3.902 million. He said such phenomenon was very strange and unusual for elections with high turnout of voters. “We deserve an explanation on this matter,” he said.

Garcia said they are in the process of gathering affidavits of witnesses to alleged incidents of cheating. 

He said they are gathering more details on reports of malfunctioning of several canvassing and consolidation systems (CCS) and vote counting machines (VCMs).

He added their IT experts have also presented technical information that may be useful if they decide to file an election protest.

He said the rules of the canvassing do not allow these “evidence” to be presented before the NBOC.

Garcia added such electoral protest would likely focus on results in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and the Visayas where most of the “under-votes” for vice president were reported.