Robredo asks Comelec to do livestream of overseas voting after reports of pre-shaded ballots

SAN FERNANDO, La Union—The camp of Vice President Leni Robredo asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to do a live stream of the voting in at least 20 Philippine embassies, consulates, and posts to ensure a fair and clean process of overseas absentee voting (OAV).

The letter to the poll body was sent on Monday, April 11, by Romulo Macalintal, Robredo’s legal counsel.

“Relative to the above, we recommend, in the spirit of transparency (but without violating the sanctity of the ballot), that the Commission do a live streaming of voting in (at the very least) the top twenty (20) Philippine embassies, consulates, and posts, with the most number of registered overseas Filipino voters,” the letter read.

Robredo herself admitted that her lawyers are already looking into the allegations of pre-shaded OAV ballots, although Macalintal also mentioned in his letter the prohibition on the premature publication of voting status, the late receipt of postal ballots in the United States, the lack of vote-counting machines (VCMs), and the wearing of campaign apparel by voters inside the precincts.

The Vice President said the issues on the pre-shaded ballots are a “cause for concern” after an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) in Singapore posted on social media about receiving a ballot with Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte’s name already pre-shaded.

“Dapat imbestigahan. Hindi lang ng Senate pero lahat na bodies na merong mandato na mag-imbestiga. Kasi ang at stake dito, hindi ba, ang at stake dito yung integrity ng elections (This needs to be investigated. Not only the Senate but all the bodies that have a mandate to investigate. Because what’s at stake here, right, what’s at stake here is the integrity of the elections),” she added, hoping that the issue was just an “isolated incident” as Comelec claimed.

Robredo encouraged voters to report instances of pre-shaded ballots, and expressed worry that the same might be happening in other areas.

READ: No such thing as pre-shaded ballots, PH Embassy in Singapore says

For his part, Macalintal warned the poll body of the “possible disenfranchisement” of OFWs in vote-rich territories like the United States and Hong Kong because many Filipinos have already complained about not receiving their postal ballots yet.

In New York, the Philippine Consulate there admitted that the VCMs, overseas ballots, and other elections materials from Manila are still currently in Alaska and will be expected to arrive in three weeks.

In Hong Kong, Macalintal noted that there were only five voting precincts opened with one VCM each.

Filipino voters there were concerned that the number of VCMs is not enough because there are some 94,000 registered Filipinos voters in the territory.

Most Filipinos in Hong Kong only have limited time during their day off to go to the precinct.

Macalintal requested an additional five VCMs in Hong Kong’s voting precincts.

READ: Comelec eyeing to increase polling precincts in HK

He also reminded Comelec that embassy and consulate personnel should “observe and implement election laws and resolutions of this Commission relative to overseas voting,” citing several videos on social media showing voters wearing campaign apparel inside the voting precincts.

“It was, likewise, reported to us that in some voting centers, watchers freely approach voters to campaign for their candidate while these voters are waiting for their turn to vote,” the election lawyer added.

Furthermore, Macalintal reported to the poll body the social media posts announcing the supposed “exit polls” because this is an elections offense.

He cited Section 5.5(d) of Republic Act 9006, which said that the results of the exit polls may only be announced after the closing of the polls on Election Day.

“Hence, we request the Honorable Commission to direct the various Philippine embassies and posts to continuously announce to voters and all concerned that "exit polls" are prohibited while overseas voting is going on and those conducting the same are criminally liable,” Macalintal said.

Close to 1.7-million Filipinos living abroad are registered voters. Voting will run from April 10 until May 9.