Marcos presents evidence showing poll fraud in 2016

MANILA, Philippines — Ferdinand Marcos, the son of the late Philippine dictator guilty of orchestrating massive human rights violations and corruption, presented Monday evidence that would supposedly show fraud during the conduct of the vice presidential election which he lost to Vice President Leni Robredo by a slim margin.

In a press conference, Marcos showed photocopies of "shocking" and "highly questionable" ballot images from Camarines Sur and Negros Oriental, two of three pilot provinces Marcos chose for his election protest pending before the Supreme Court sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, the body tasked to settle disputes in presidential and vice presidential votes.

"This is shocking and highly questionable. This is precisely the reason why because they knew we would uncover how they had manipulated the voting and trampled upon the true will of the people on their choice for vice president," said Marcos, who lost to Robredo by more than 200,000.

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After they secured some of the soft copies of the ballot images from some clustered precincts in the two pilot provinces, Marcos claimed to have discovered a lot of evidence of electoral fraud.

Marcos questioned the presence of square shapes in ballot images instead of oval marks which voters shaded for their choice of candidates.

The losing vice presidential candidate urged the COMELEC to explain the use of square instead of the traditional oval shapes.

Marcos also showed copies of ballot images from Camarines Sur and Negros Oriental indicating that votes for him were not counted and were instead considered as "undervotes."

He also claimed that some ballots showing two or more candidates shaded in the vice presidential election were counted for Robredo, instead of being considered "overvotes."

READ:  Robredo lawyer urges Marcos camp to avoid stalling election protest

Robredo's camp is yet to comment on the latest accusations from Marcos.

Marcos said that this could be the reason why there were 3 million "undervotes" for the vice presidency during the 2016 polls, adding that Robredo received votes not intended for her.

Vic Rodriguez, a lawyer for Marcos, said that he could not help wondering how the Commission on Elections could claim that the 2016 elections, which President Rodrigo Duterte won, were "squeaky clean" following their discovery supposed "shocking and disturbing" discrepancies.

The former senator also accused anew Justice Benjamin Caguioa of bias in handling his case, claiming that the evidence he presented could be the reason why he was supposedly "depriving" him of documents after the PET required him to pay and gave Robredo advance copies of documents for free.

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"They bastardized our democracy and the sense of honesty and integrity of the Filipino people. Their depravity is unprecedented,” Marcos said.

Romulo Macalintal, the election counsel for the vice president, said that Marcos' "repeated claim" of bias was just he "mere ploy or strategy" to preempt the results of the recount of the ballots.

"For sure, Marcos has been fully advised that the results of the recount of ballots in various places involving local election protests were dismissed since the physical count of the ballots tallied with the results generated by the vote counting machines," Macalintal said.

Should his protest prosper, this will mark a milestone in the effort of the Marcos family to rehabilitate its name following its disgraceful exit from the presidential palace in 1986. Since then, members of the Marcos family have occupied congressional and local posts on the back of their solid support from loyalists of the late dictator.

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