By REY G. PANALIGAN
A ballot box retrieved from Ocampo, Camarines Sur contains partially burned ballots, wet ballots, and missing election returns, voters receipts, and minutes of voting.
This was revealed yesterday by Presidential Electoral Tribunal revisors who asked not to be named.
The ballots have burns on the edges probably from lighted cigarettes and holes in the middle portion, the revisors alleged. The burned ballots were shaded allegedly in favor of Vice President Leni G. Robredo.
PET revisors called for the investigation of personnel of the city treasurer’s office in Ocampo on the issue of burned ballots.
Earlier, the revisors said that they found out that 53 of the 55 clustered precincts in Bula, Camarines Sur and 20 out of 30 clustered precincts in Balatan, Camarines Sur had no voters’ receipts.
Meanwhile, the manual recount and revision of votes in the contested 2016 vice presidential election was suspended starting at 2 p.m. yesterday when all the 16 airconditioning units bogged down.
PET revisors said the airconditioning trouble was traced to the circuit breaker which could not be immediately repaired, prompting the suspension of work on the fifth floor of the Supreme Court-Court of Appeals Gymnasium in Ermita, Manila where the manual recount and revision of ballots are being conducted behind closed doors.
It was not known immediately if the manual recount and revision of ballots in the protest filed by then Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. against Robredo would resume this morning.
Being manually recounted and revised are ballots from Ocampo, Pili, Magarao, Presentacion, Lagonoy, Camaligan, and Garchitorena, Camarines Sur. After three weeks, the PET revisors have finished their work in Baao, Bato, Bula, Balatan, Sagnay, and Buhi, Camarines Sur.
Marcos’ protest against Robredo was filed on June 2016. Robredo filed her counter-protest in August 2016. The two cases were consolidated by the PET. After several postponements, the manual recount and revision of ballots in the three pilot provinces named by Marcos – Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental – started last April 2.
Marcos protested the results in 132,446 precincts in 27 provinces and cities.
The result of the manual recount and revision of ballots in the three pilot provinces would determine if the PET would proceed with the work in the other areas subject of the protest.
