Philippine Ambassador to Singapore Joseph Del Mar Yap explained what went down with the spoiled ballot incident during the overseas Filipino worker (OFW) absentee voting in Singapore.
Suffrage And Electoral Reforms Committee Vice Chairman Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga asked Yap to explain exactly what happened in the Embassy of the Philippines in Singapore during a committee hearing on Wednesday, April 20.
“On April 10, there was an incident where one voter was inadvertently given two ballots... when it was issued nakadikit yung second ballot ,” Yap explained during the panel hearing.
“But instead of returning yung (the) extra ballot, the voter proceeded to fill up both ballots but only one of the ballots bore the signature of the Special Board of Election Inspectors (SBEI) chair. Hindi valid yung isang ballot (The other ballot wasn’t valid),” he continued.
According to Yap, as the two ballots were stuck together, only the ballot on top was signed by the SBEI chair.
“After she filled up the ballot, she proceeded to try to submit the ballot for feeding in the machine. But the SBEI member who was manning the machine noticed that there was no signature, so he said to the voter please have the ballot signed."
He further narrated that the voter told an SBEI member that they had a second ballot signed by the SBEI, prompting the SBEI member to tell the voter to return the unsigned ballot.
Yap then claimed that this was where the mix-up took place, citing the long queues of voters on the first day of absentee voting as the reason for the mistake.
“Ang haba ng pila (The queue was so long) on that day, because it was the first day of voting. Tinabi ng SBEI member (They kept) because he and the chair were attending to the long line of waiting voters.
“At the end of the day after 10 hours of voting in the evening when they were making ligpit na (keeping) everything, inadvertently napasama yung extra ballot na yun with the unissued ballots. Everything was put back in the same box," Yap said.
“The following day, April 11 in the morning... when the ballots were issued, inadvertently one of the voters got the spoiled ballot from the previous day,” he said.
Yap says this is why the voter who received the spoiled ballot complained that it was a pre-shaded ballot at first. He added that this voter then received a clean ballot while the spoiled ballot was properly set aside.
This, despite Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Undersecretary Brigido Dulay's claim during an April 19 Senate hearing that the ink of the first ballot had merely smeared the second.
Barzaga then asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) about proper procedure pertaining to spoiled ballots, and if this had been followed.
According to Comelec Commissioner Marlon Casquejo, spoiled ballots must first be marked as spoiled on the front page. It must then be kept in a separate envelope and declared as spoiled.
Consul General Bernie Candolada of the Philippine Embassy in Singapore admitted that they had a lapse in following the procedure.