The Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (CMD) party chaired by Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte is looking into the implications of the data breach on Smartmatic, the Commission on Elections' (Comelec) service contractor for the upcoming May 9 polls.
This was confirmed by Duterte herself during a chance interview in Cebu on Friday, March 18.
"Yes oo, nag-meeting kami sa legal team sa (we met with the legal team of) Lakas-Christian Democrats and in the way forward with the legal team, para sa mga questions and issues with regard to procedure and sa (in the) system sa (of) Comelec in the conduct of May 2022 elections," the lady official said when asked to comment about the Smartmatic data breach issue.
Asked if she didn't trust Smartmatic, the presidential daughter begged off and instead responded to an unrelated question from another reporter.
Duterte who is vying for the vice presidency in this year's elections.
She and her election partner, Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP) presidential candidate former senator Bongbong Marcos--collectively dubbed as the "UniTeam"--have been consistent survey frontrunners in the lead up to the polls.
On Thursday, Joint Congressional Oversight Committee (JCOC) on the Automated Election System chairperson, Senator Imee Marcos confirmed after two months worth of investigations that there was “indeed a security breach” in the operations of the London-based Smartmatic in connection with the May polls.
The investigations were prompted by a Manila Bulletin report in January stating that Comelec servers were hacked, resulting to possible compromised voters’ information.
“What is clear: Art Samaniego, Manila Bulletin, and the media have been the best watchdog,” Marcos concluded.