Vice president recount: Opposing camps contest shaded ballots

MANILA, Philippines — The recount of votes in the 2016 vice presidential race hit another snag yesterday after the camps of Vice President Leni Robredo and former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. clashed over excess ballots that had shaded votes for Robredo.

Tension gripped the 13th day of the recount by the Supreme Court sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) as revisers from Robredo and Marcos camps figured in a heated argument at the venue that led to a delay in proceedings, according to insiders.

The sources, who requested anonymity due to the confidentiality rule imposed by the PET on revisers and parties in the case, revealed that the clash started when more unused or excess ballots with shaded votes for Robredo were found in the clustered precincts from the town of Buhi, Camarines Sur.

They said revisers from the Robredo camp wanted the excess ballots with shaded votes for her in Buhi town to be counted.

“The revisers of Marcos, of course, opposed the moves because they are excess ballots or stray ballots. They insisted that those ballots shaded for Robredo are proof of pre-shading or cheating during the elections,” one of the insiders bared.

“Emotions ran high and there was really tension in the venue,” the source added.

As a result, the revision of the affected precincts did not push through and the unused or excess ballots with shaded votes for Robredo were set aside until the PET settles the issue.

It was the second time the recount was met with delay. On the second day of the recount that started last April 2, four of the 40 head revisers resigned from their duties for undisclosed reasons.

The insiders also bared that the head revisers tapped by the PET told the opposing parties to reconcile the disparity in the election returns and the physical count after it was found that the figures in the election results did not match the physical count of the ballots.

It was also discovered that Robredo’s votes in some precincts exceeded the number of actual voters, sources said.

“This is highly irregular and disturbing because revisers are not supposed to reconcile the figures but to find out if the results in the ER match with the physical count,” the insider commented.

The head revisors also reportedly told both camps not to include the number of undervotes and over-votes in the recount for no apparent reason. 

“This is also unacceptable because all the entries in the ballots and ballot boxes with respect to the VP election protest should be reported and put on record,” the source added.

Undervotes occur when voters fail to vote for anyone in a position while overvotes happen when voters select more than the required number of candidates in any position.

Earlier, it was found that some 5,000 votes for Robredo have been invalidated after two weeks of recount so far from her home province, Camarines Sur.

The reduction of votes for the Vice President was a result of the PET ruling last week, which denied her motion asking the tribunal to count one-fourth shaded votes supposedly pursuant to the threshold set by the Commission on Elections (Comelec). It also declared as valid only the votes that were at least 50-percent shaded. 

During the first two weeks of recount, several irregularities were raised over the discovery of wet ballot boxes, unused or excess ballots with shaded votes for Robredo, missing audit logs and missing voters’ receipts in towns of Bato, Baao, Balatan, Bula and Sagñay in Camarines Sur.

The camp of Marcos claimed that these discoveries could be proofs of election fraud.

But Robredo’s lawyer alleged that the former senator was only trying to taint the results of the recount and twisting the developments to favor his protest. –  With Eva Visperas, Miriam Desacada