ADVERTISEMENT
Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider PH envoy to SG tells story behind spoiled ballot in House hearing

PH envoy to SG tells story behind spoiled ballot in House hearing

Published Apr 20, 2022 08:39 pm

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.

Workers check the printed official ballots to be used for the upcoming 2022 National and Local Elections at the National Printing Office (NPO) in Quezon City (MARK BALMORES / MANILA BULLETIN)

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.

Related Tags

42022 spoiled ballot absentee voting Singapore Voting ELECTION OFW
ADVERTISEMENT
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1561_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1562_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1563_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}

{{ articles_filter_1564_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.mb-article-details { position: relative; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview, .mb-article-details .article-body-summary{ font-size: 17px; line-height: 30px; font-family: "Libre Caslon Text", serif; color: #000; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview iframe , .mb-article-details .article-body-summary iframe{ width: 100%; margin: auto; } .read-more-background { background: linear-gradient(180deg, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0) 13.75%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0.8) 30.79%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000) 72.5%); position: absolute; height: 200px; width: 100%; bottom: 0; display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; padding: 0; } .read-more-background a{ color: #000; } .read-more-btn { padding: 17px 45px; font-family: Inter; font-weight: 700; font-size: 18px; line-height: 16px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; border: 1px solid black; background-color: white; } .hidden { display: none; }
function initializeAllSwipers() { // Get all hidden inputs with cms_article_id document.querySelectorAll('[id^="cms_article_id_"]').forEach(function (input) { const cmsArticleId = input.value; const articleSelector = '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .body_images'; const swiperElement = document.querySelector(articleSelector); if (swiperElement && !swiperElement.classList.contains('swiper-initialized')) { new Swiper(articleSelector, { loop: true, pagination: false, navigation: { nextEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-next', prevEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-prev', }, }); } }); } setTimeout(initializeAllSwipers, 3000); const intersectionObserver = new IntersectionObserver( (entries) => { entries.forEach((entry) => { if (entry.isIntersecting) { const newUrl = entry.target.getAttribute("data-url"); if (newUrl) { history.pushState(null, null, newUrl); let article = entry.target; // Extract metadata const author = article.querySelector('.author-section').textContent.replace('By', '').trim(); const section = article.querySelector('.section-info ').textContent.replace(' ', ' '); const title = article.querySelector('.article-title h1').textContent; // Parse URL for Chartbeat path format const parsedUrl = new URL(newUrl, window.location.origin); const cleanUrl = parsedUrl.host + parsedUrl.pathname; // Update Chartbeat configuration if (typeof window._sf_async_config !== 'undefined') { window._sf_async_config.path = cleanUrl; window._sf_async_config.sections = section; window._sf_async_config.authors = author; } // Track virtual page view with Chartbeat if (typeof pSUPERFLY !== 'undefined' && typeof pSUPERFLY.virtualPage === 'function') { try { pSUPERFLY.virtualPage({ path: cleanUrl, title: title, sections: section, authors: author }); } catch (error) { console.error('ping error', error); } } // Optional: Update document title if (title && title !== document.title) { document.title = title; } } } }); }, { threshold: 0.1 } ); function showArticleBody(button) { const article = button.closest("article"); const summary = article.querySelector(".article-body-summary"); const body = article.querySelector(".article-body-preview"); const readMoreSection = article.querySelector(".read-more-background"); // Hide summary and read-more section summary.style.display = "none"; readMoreSection.style.display = "none"; // Show the full article body body.classList.remove("hidden"); } document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => { let loadCount = 0; // Track how many times articles are loaded const offset = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]; // Offset values const currentUrl = window.location.pathname.substring(1); let isLoading = false; // Prevent multiple calls if (!currentUrl) { console.log("Current URL is invalid."); return; } const sentinel = document.getElementById("load-more-sentinel"); if (!sentinel) { console.log("Sentinel element not found."); return; } function isSentinelVisible() { const rect = sentinel.getBoundingClientRect(); return ( rect.top < window.innerHeight && rect.bottom >= 0 ); } function onScroll() { if (isLoading) return; if (isSentinelVisible()) { if (loadCount >= offset.length) { console.log("Maximum load attempts reached."); window.removeEventListener("scroll", onScroll); return; } isLoading = true; const currentOffset = offset[loadCount]; window.loadMoreItems().then(() => { let article = document.querySelector('#widget_1690 > div:nth-last-of-type(2) article'); intersectionObserver.observe(article) loadCount++; }).catch(error => { console.error("Error loading more items:", error); }).finally(() => { isLoading = false; }); } } window.addEventListener("scroll", onScroll); });
Join Our Newsletters

Sign up by email to receive news.

© 2025 Manila Bulletin The Nation's Leading Newspaper. All Rights Reserved.