{"id":214171,"date":"2019-05-13T22:52:20","date_gmt":"2019-05-14T02:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=214171"},"modified":"2019-05-13T22:52:20","modified_gmt":"2019-05-14T02:52:20","slug":"let-comelec-explain-faulty-vote-counting-machines-duterte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/05\/13\/let-comelec-explain-faulty-vote-counting-machines-duterte\/","title":{"rendered":"Let Comelec explain faulty vote counting machines: Duterte"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte answers queries from members of the media after casting his vote for the midterm elections at the Daniel R. Aguinaldo National High School in Davao City on May 13, 2019. RICHARD MADELO\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday appealed to allow first the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to explain the reason behind the reported malfunctioning vote counting machines (VCMs) during the mid-term elections before government conducts an investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cComelec is an independent body. And if there is any malfunction there or aberration at all in the procedure or process in the conduct of elections, let Comelec first explain to the people before we initiate a sort of investigation that is in recognizance of our independent (commissions),\u201d Duterte said in a chance interview after he cast his vote at the Daniel R. Aguinaldo National High School in Davao City.<\/p>\n

The Comelec earlier admitted that VCM issues tripled in this year\u2019s polls but assured that the number of VCMs that malfunctioned is still \u201cwithin range.\u201d<\/p>\n

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez explained an expected 400 to 600 malfunctioning VCMs out of the total 85,000 VCMs was a \u201csmall figure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vote-buying<\/strong><\/p>\n

Duterte, meanwhile, said candidates caught vote-buying would be prosecuted to the full length of the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they are caught, they should be prosecuted to the full length of the law,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

He, however, acknowledged the practice of buying votes has been an \u201cintegral\u201d part of election in the country since many Filipinos are poor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWalang hindi nagbibili ng boto dito, maniwala ka. Ituro mo kung sinong di nagbili ng boto<\/em>\u00a0(There\u2019s no candidate that doesn\u2019t engage in vote-buying, believe it. Point to me a person who hasn\u2019t engaged in vote-buying),\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you start to give money, that\u2019s not because I\u2019m buying the vote of the fellow. It\u2019s because I\u2019m giving him money to go to the precinto (precinct), cast his vote, and go home.\u00a0\u2018Di naman lahat may pera<\/em>\u00a0(Not everyone has money),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Aside from the malfunctioning VCMs, vote-buying, and violence in some parts of Mindanao, Duterte said he has yet to receive information about anything that disrupted the conduct of elections.<\/p>\n

Duterte said he wanted to visit Lanao del Sur following reports of violence and harassment in the area, but prioritized casting his vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople will always congregate where I am and political leaders are also there and it might be construed by the many that campaigning beyond the allowable days and rather than risk disqualification,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLanao remains to be controllable. I communicate with the Army, police almost every hour and for them to tell me there is something big in the conduct of elections,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday appealed to allow first the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to explain the reason behind …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":214172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-214171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214171"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":214173,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214171\/revisions\/214173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}