Kapihan sa Senado
May 24, 2007
first part Guest Speakers:
Mr. Damaso* Magbual, Namfrel Dep. SecGen
Atty. Howard Calleja, PPCRv Legal Counsel



**Excerpts from around 11:00 – 11:45 am only
***photocopies of statement of facts re May 14 elections were distributed by mr. magbual


On the cause of delay in NAMFREL counting:

Mr. Magbual: there are two reasons. One, you are counting, with Namfrel, what you call election returns. You have 224,000 of them. In the case of the comelec, you count what you call certificate of canvass. So you have 200 pieces of that. So 224,000 as against 200 pieces. Mr. Go. Admitted on day two, so I should be in liberty to say it, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Go admitted that our reason for the delay was, there was a problem with the system that was being used in La Salle….the idea of the new system, incidentally I was part of the conceptualizing, at least, we gave that to the IMI, this is an Ayala company in Laguna, and they were supposed to do it. They did it. When there was this new group. They made changes, and that was the start of the problem. The system was supposed to be this. From the municipality, it is encoded in computers, sent by emails, it goes to the server at La Salle. So there should be no more encoding in La Salle. So with 90 per cent that were supposed to make electronic transmission, the quick count should had really been a quick count, maybe, could have been finished in less than a week. Because there were only, ten percent of the provinces were not, what they called, connected, like kalinga, apayao, siquijor, these were the ones that were supposed to use …so something went wrong in the system, they had to send it by fax, they had to make adjustments for those who were making electronic transmission, so you have what, two-three days wasted.

On the continuation of the “slow” counting:

Mr. Magbual: The slow count will continue for as long as there are election returns to be tabulated, to be counted…namfrel will count all the returns that it retrieved. provided, one, that you can read them. provided two, there are no material defects in the returns. The reason why namfrel never succeed in counting 100 percent, incidentally, there is not any election wherein the comelec counted 100 percent….three reasons why namfrel cannot make a complete count. One, there are returns we cannot read because we get the 6th copy. It’s blank, simple. About 70 percent of returns are like that. There are returns that have material defects. Let me cite you what I mean material defects. If you look at the data and the voters, it says there, voters who voted, 140. ballots in the ballot box, 187. how can you have 187 ballots inside the ballot box when only 140 people voted. So you have a classic case of ballot stamping already. So we set it aside. You do not count it because the return has no integrity. Or let me go to Maguindanao. Supposing the comelec will now give us the Maguindanao election returns. Do you think we should count it. No we should not. Because we were not a witness to the counting. And how can you therefore certify to the integrity of the count. So we will not count that. So, one, some are not readable. Two, some have material defects. Three, we failed to collect the sixth copy. And as many as three percent count on that.

On areas where Namfrel did not get its copy:

Mr. Magbual: In Maguindanao we did not receive a single copy. We were banned from entering. We did not go the precincts in maguindanao because the counting in maguindanao, because of peace and order condition supposed to be, under the comelec law, under the election law, the comelec may designate what you call a counting place where it means will guarantee the safety of everybody. So the counting was designated at the capitolyo. So when our volunteers go there, so that one, they can witness the count, two they can get the copies of the election return, we were not allowed inside. So we did not receive a single copy.

On the claim of the police that the 2007 has been the cleanest and most honest election:

Mr. Magbual: the police say it is relatively peaceful because the number of casualties had gone down. So they look at it as statistics. Mere statistics. I think that when we say that the last elections was peaceful simply because the number of casualties we have is lower than the previous election, I think we are lowering our benchmark or parameters in assessing what makes up a peaceful election. 150 casualties who died, and you call that peaceful, I cannot agree with that. We have not suffered any casualty with namfrel for the past few elections. This time, we had a casualty, and he’s still at the hospital. In abra, one of our volunteers, accompanied the BEI from the treasurer’s office to the precinct with the ballot box, the election paraphernalia, and they were sprayed with bullets. He was hit at the head, and he is still recovering at the hospital.

On segregating the Maguindanao COC’s pending investigation by newly-created Maguindanao Task Force, instead of declaring a failure of election in the said area:

Atty. Calleja: …we are asking that the COC of Maguindanao, which is already in the PICC at comelec hands, to be segregated first prior to be counted. And then after the investigation, then we make a decision, whether or not such should be counted, if it would warrant a failure of election, if it would warrant a segregation of the votes, then that would be depending on the outcome of the investigation. We cannot say for now yet what would happen. With regards to the task force, I would repeat the call of the ppcrv that we include in the task force the watchdogs, meaning the ppcrv and the namfrel, to be an active participant in the task force, and not only mere invited to be asked of what happened. But actually, to be given the opportunity to join the committee or this task force to ask questions with the teachers or with whoever would be invited. And also yung mga senate reporters, sana dito sa executive committee, Yung kapag nag-executive committee, walang pangalan, walang affidavit. Walang lahat basta gusto lang malaman ang katotohanan. Yan din sana ang minumungkahi namin sa comelec. Kasi mahirap naman na tanungin yung mga tao, at hingin ng affidavit…..so we are saying, we are hoping that in this task force, instead of pressuring us to bring out our witness, or to give an affidavit, we would present such witnesses and additional witnesses, other witnesses, in a sort of executive session Where there is secrecy, or their identity would remain safe and secure as far as they are concerned.

On the roles of PPCRV, NAMFREL, et al as watchdog elections, and their claim of absence in Maguindanao:

Atty. Calleja:…what we are saying is that we are the watchdogs to help the comelec. We are not here to discredit the elections, nor to discredit the institution. What we are saying is that by the mere fact that we were not allowed to be present to see if the elections were transparent, the process of this election, in those specified provinces, or municipalities, to our mind, is lacking the necessary electoral procedure that was supposed to happen in this election. And that being the case, if this is not in the procedure, so we are saying, there might be some lapse that maybe might warrant an investigation and if so might warrant a failure of elections, depending on the investigation. (so the absence of the watchdog) is what the investigation would determine. Because we cannot jump to the conclusion that we are not there, it is fraudulent. But what we are saying, if we were not there, we would like to come in to see whether or not there was indeed, elections.