{"id":216862,"date":"2019-06-01T00:28:47","date_gmt":"2019-06-01T04:28:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=216862"},"modified":"2019-06-01T00:28:47","modified_gmt":"2019-06-01T04:28:47","slug":"pimentel-backs-prrd-call-to-get-rid-of-smartmatic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/06\/01\/pimentel-backs-prrd-call-to-get-rid-of-smartmatic\/","title":{"rendered":"Pimentel backs PRRD call to get rid of Smartmatic"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_216863\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-216863\" style=\"width: 415px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/pimentel_5ac2ea04951ae0_39544660.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-216863\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/pimentel_5ac2ea04951ae0_39544660.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"415\" height=\"260\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/pimentel_5ac2ea04951ae0_39544660.jpg 415w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/pimentel_5ac2ea04951ae0_39544660-300x188.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 415px) 100vw, 415px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-216863\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Senator Aquilino Pimentel III on Friday backed President Rodrigo Duterte&#8217;s advice to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to let go of the services of Smartmatic in the country&#8217;s automated elections. (PNA Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0&#8212; Senator Aquilino Pimentel III on Friday backed President Rodrigo Duterte&#8217;s advice to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to let go of the services of Smartmatic in the country&#8217;s automated elections.<\/p>\n<p>Pimentel, chair of the Senate committee on electoral reforms and people&#8217;s participation, said the President has a good point in suggesting to look for a new provider that is &#8220;free of fraud&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I have been thinking along that line too. We need a new system in 2022,&#8221; Pimentel told reporters in a text message.<\/p>\n<p>Smartmatic International has been providing the VCMs used in the past three automated elections &#8212; in 2010, 2013 and 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Pimentel pushed for the use of a hybrid of both manual and automated election system for next year\u2019s polls.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Better if counting can be witnessed at the precinct level,&#8221; Pimentel said.<\/p>\n<p>In his speech during his meeting with the Filipino community in Tokyo, Japan, Duterte said allegations of cheating have been rampant from both sides of the political parties.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<em>Kasi ang<\/em>\u00a0Liberal (Party)\u00a0<em>sabi nila nadaya sila. Ako sabi nila nadaya rin<\/em>\u00a0(The Liberal Party said they were cheated. People also say I was cheated),&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>The President said the poll body has enough time to look for a new service provider since it has three years to prepare for the next automated elections.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You know it\u2019s creating an environment of hostile attitude against that Smartmatic. You have three years.\u00a0<em>Kakatapos lang ng<\/em>\u00a0election (Elections have just concluded).\u00a0<em>Palitan na ninyo kasi<\/em>\u00a0(Replace it because) it is no longer acceptable to me, to the people, and even to the congressmen who are here,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Duterte said the public has no more trust in Smartmatic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MANILA\u00a0&#8212; Senator Aquilino Pimentel III on Friday backed President Rodrigo Duterte&#8217;s advice to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to let &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":216863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-216862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-filane-mikee-cervantes","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216862","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=216862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216864,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216862\/revisions\/216864"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}