MALACAÑANG yesterday promised to address apprehensions that cheating and manipulation might occur in the upcoming May 9 polls.
“We are one with the Commission on Elections in its objective to assure an orderly, peaceful and clean election in May. We have to address the fears regarding the allegation that there might be cheating in the elections,” said Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Herminio Coloma.
He gave this assurance following a Pulse Asia survey which showed that 39 percent of Filipinos are expecting cheating in the elections.
In 2010, Coloma said the government changed the election system from manual to automated to make sure that all the votes will be counted.
“The people are expecting that the system will be improve to eliminate the actual or alleged ways to cheat the election,” he said.
Coloma said there is also a need to strengthen the education campaign for the public particularly the voters to get inform and understand fully the automated voting system and to eventually wipe away doubts on the integrity of the system.
On the request by former senator Richard Gordon to the Supreme Court to require Comelec to print ballot receipts, Coloma said the Comelec had previously explained that the printing of such receipts “present more disadvantages than advantages, in terms of possible vote-buying and actual lengthening of voting hours.”
“As an independent constitutional body, the Comelec is tasked with ensuring the integrity and credibility of elections. Now, it is up to the Supreme Court to act as final arbiter in disputes of this nature,” Coloma said.
Coloma, meanwhile, said the National Police and the Armed Forces have continued to monitor the election hotspots following attacks by the New People’s Army (NPA) rebels on the government forces.
“The government will not be shaken by any threat that armed groups might sow,” Coloma said.
Based on the Pulse Asia survey held two weeks before the election campaign started last Feb. 10, four of 10 Filipinos believed that cheating might possibly happen.
The survey also found out that 48 percent of Filipinos believe that the May 9 polls “will be clean and the results credible because the counting of votes is automated,” while 34 percent were undecided.
