THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) outrightly belied on Tuesday, March 31, 2026, allegations raised in the forthcoming impeachment complaints to be filed against its Chairman George Garcia and six commissioners.
In a statement, the Comelec said the claims of Project Damaskus Lawyers co-founders Eldrige Marvin Aceron and Sikini Labastilla are already "old issues" that have been repeatedly addressed.
"These issues or allegations are not new and have been repeatedly clarified by the Comelec in a manner that the public can understand," said the Comelec.
The poll body denied claims that the software version 3.5.0 in all 110,000 automated counting machines (ACMs) used in the May 12, 2025 elections was not subjected to the mandatory source code review.
"Independent and third-party international certification entity, Pro V&V, clarified that the source code review they conducted was version 3.5.0 of ACM, which became the Final Trusted Build of ACM on 29 March 2025, 9 a.m. (PST) in Huntsville, Alabama, USA," said the Comelec.
It also denied that the Comelec operated an unauthorized intermediary server designated “Data Center 3” through which all election results in the May 12, 2025 elections were routed before reaching the five accredited transparency servers.
"Data Center 3 is not a server or a so-called 'intermediary server' that receives the election results of the May 12, 2025 National and Local Elections. It is a facility where five stand-alone and independent transparency servers are housed," said the Comelec.
The commission also belied allegations that Garcia concealed during the May 9, 2022 elections the deployment of a single private IP address (192.168.0.2) for 20,300 vote-counting machine modems.
"The 20,300 modems used in the transmission of election results in the 2022 National and Local Elections used a 4G network, went through various types of tests, passed certification, and had the same IP address," said the Comelec.
The Comelec also said that there is no truth to claims of having "systematic and selective enforcement of campaign finance laws" when it virtually cleared Senators Francis Escudero and Rodante Marcoleta from possible accountability.
"There is no truth in the claim that the Comelec always favors senators when it comes to the implementation of campaign finance laws. These cases of Senators Escudero and Marcoleta went through very careful study and discussion by various departments and offices of the Comelec before being decided," said the Comelec.
On Monday, Aceron and Labastilla announced that they will file impeachment complaints against Garcia, as well as Commissioners Nelson Celis, Ernesto Ferdinand Maceda Jr., Aimee Ferolino, Rey Bulay, Maria Norina Tangaro-Casingal, and Noli Pipo. (Anton Banal/SunStar Philippines)