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Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Poll body washes hands off 'missing' ballot boxes
MANILA -- Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. said Tuesday the more than 150 election returns (ERs) reported missing are no longer a concern of the electoral body.
Abalos issued the statement in reaction to the claim of Sixto Brillantes, lawyer of defeated vice presidential candidate Loren Legarda in her electoral protest against Vice President Noli de Castro, that the ballot boxes containing the returns are missing at the House of Representatives, which has been tasked to safeguard the election documents.
"Don't ask us where they are (ERs) because they should have been within the duty of Congress after we had given the election documents to them," he said.
He said the ERs in Congress's custody are not their concern anymore since what they should safeguard is their own copies of the ERs. "Congress should be the one to explain and not the Comelec," he said.
Abalos said they are willing to show their copies of the ERs if the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) ask for them.
Abalos said although there is a big question over the missing ballot boxes, there are still others, which the PET could use as reference since six copies of the ERs were used during the May 2004 elections.
He said the National Citizens Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), majority political party, and minority political party also have copies of the ERs.
House Deputy Secretary General Artemio Adasa Jr. earlier denied that some ballot boxes were missing.
Adasa said the storage area for the ballot boxes has not been opened or disturbed since it was padlocked after the presidential and vice presidential canvassing in June 2004.
He said the storage area in the House South Lobby is under 24-hour watch by police personnel and monitored on close-circuit security television.
"There is no sign of forced entry or intrusion, and there is absolutely no indication that the ballot boxes as arranged in June 2004 were disturbed," Adasa added.
The Lower House released last Monday 53 ballot boxes to the PET, five of them containing certificates of canvass (COCs) and 48 others containing ERs from the provinces of Surigao del Sur, Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte. (MSN/Sunnex)
(September 28, 2005 issue)
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