This time it’s missing voters’ receipts in VP recount

MANILA, Philippines — More questions were raised yesterday on the results of the vice presidential election in 2016.

The recount of the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), uncovered yet another alleged anomaly.

The revisers discovered that several ballot boxes from Balatan town in Camarines Sur had missing voters’ receipts.

An insider, who requested anonymity due to the gag order issued by the PET on the recount, said this irregularity could mean that the votes cast were not the results transmitted by the vote counting machines (VCMs).

The source said that the missing voters’ receipt could raise serious concerns as the poll material is required by law to be part of the documents to be included in the ballot boxes. 

“Their absence in some of the ballot boxes indicated that they were removed or not included because the votes there will not tally with the machine count,” the source said.

During the first week of recount, several wet ballot boxes were found from Bato and Baao towns as well as Naga City in Camarines Sur. 

Some unused or excess ballots with shaded votes for Robredo and ballots cut into half were also discovered.

There were missing audit logs from clustered precincts in Bato town discovered by revisers upon opening of the ballot boxes.

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

The camp of Vice President Leni Robredo alleged that the former senator was trying to cast doubt on the recount and twist the development to favor his protest.

Four of 40 chief revisers resigned a day after the start of the recount for still undetermined reasons. 

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