MANILA, May 9, 2013—Barely four days before the May 2013 midterm election, some candidates endorsed by the White Vote Movement expressed fear a “hocus pocus” might happen using the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS).
In a Church forum last Tuesday, senatorial candidates Miguel Zubiri and Atty. Marwil Llasos expressed concerns on possible PCOS anomalies during Election Day on May 13.
“We feel threatened and afraid that some PCOS machines may not read the right vote for senatorial candidates. I also urged the public, especially the voters to take care of their votes and be vigilant about some cheating tactics during the voting day,” Zubiri said.
Zubiri also asked poll watchers to be on alert for possible fraud in polling precincts that can be done prior to the elections and prior to voting.
Llasos on the other hand said that there is a very real threat.
“The PCOS machine is very much imperfect and the Commission on Election (Comelec) doesn’t want to fix imperfection,” Llasos said.
Comelec has been sitting on the issue despite the alarms raised by concerned sectors, he added.
But despite the imperfections, the senatorial neophyte still encouraged fellow Filipinos to vote on the May 13 polls.
Meanwhile, Fr. Edu Gariguez, executive secretary of the CBCP’s National Secretariat for Social Action said anomalies surrounding the PCOS machine and other issues concerning the coming election may bring frightening scenarios.
It may happen that people would not accept the result of the election just because the Commission on Election (Comelec) didn’t have transparency, he said
“We must monitor what will happen on election day because our future will depend on [its outcome],” Gariguez added. (Jandel Posion)
