Opposition coalition 1Sambayan is gearing up for a “different kind of campaign,” one that will be purely fought in television, radio, and social media, but retired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said another battle looms in protecting presidential aspirant Vice President Leni Robredo’s votes come election time.

Carpio, who hails from the Dutertes’ bailiwick of Davao City and is related through marriage to presidential daughter Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, shared that 1Sambayan is currently “mobilizing” by establishing chapters all over the country and overseas.

This is in preparation not only for the campaign season, which begins February 2022, but for the protection of Robredo’s votes during the May 2022 elections.

Sounding fears that the election returns “could be hacked while being transmitted” from the precinct level to the different canvassing boards in the district, municipal, and provincial levels, Carpio said that 1Sambayan will need two poll watchers for each of the 95,000 precincts to ensure the opposition standard-bearer’s votes are protected.

“So, to counter check that, we have to have copies of the source document—the election returns. They will take pictures, transmit it to us, and we will counter check the Certificates of Canvass issued by the different canvassing boards,” he explained during the recent launch of Davao for Leni.

“So, this requires a lot of work, a lot of planning, a lot of training, and we have to do this while we have to campaign,” Carpio stressed.

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1Sambayan will build a national headquarters where it will have a computerized quick count “to counter check the results in the diffferent canvassing boards” sent to them by an “army” of some 190,000 poll watchers.

But 1Sambayan, a group composed of anti-administration forces who have spoken out against the Duterte administration’s human rights abuses, pro-China policy, and slow pandemic response, doesn’t only need poll watchers; it also needs “digital warriors.”

Carpio, the lead convenor of 1Sambayan, shared that a group approached them asking for $2 million “for a certain period of time.”

“Only the Dutertes and the Marcoses can afford them,” he noted.

“I said we can’t even imagine paying you. So, we have to—sariling sikap ito (we must make the effort by ourselves). We have to train our own digital warriors and we also have to look at election day because on election day, we have to protect the votes of VP Leni,” Carpio said.

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He cited that F2 Logistics, a company owned by Duterte’s ally, Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy, will handle the ballots, the flash cards, and all the other election paraphernalia from the warehouses in Metro Manila to 95,000 precincts all over the country.

“They will be in possession of these ballots and flash cards for several days,” Carpio said. “We have to prepare for all of these contingencies.”