Defective VCMs, vote-buying, Mindanao explosions mar midterm polls
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Mon, 13 May 2019 05:42:57 +0000
REPORTS of defective vote-counting machines, vote-buying, and explosions reached the Commission on Elections (Comelec) early on Monday, Election Day.
Among the victims of the defective VCMs were former vice president Jejomar Binay and re-electionist Sen. Grace Poe.
An angry Binay complained to the Comelec after the VCM in his precinct in Makati City coughed out his ballot eight times, nullifying his vote.
READ: Former vice-president Binay to file complaint as VCM coughs out ballot 8 times
Poe was forced to go home and had to wait for the VCM in her precinct at the Sta. Lucia Elementary School in San Juan City to get fixed before she could vote.
Even the celebrities were not spared.
Karla Estrada posted a photo of her lining up in a polling station. With her son Daniel Padilla and his loveteam Kathryn Bernardo, they are supporting her ex-husband Rommel Padilla, who is running as congressman of the first district of Nueva Ecija.
“Waiting sa pila para bumoto!sira ang machine ng precinct namin kaya tulala lang kami dito sa pila!Pati pag boto sakripisyo! Kaya kayong mga mahahalal galingan n’yo talaga!!! Nakuuu!!!! Bangon mga kababayan at bumoto para May karapatan kang punahin ang mga maluloklok na hindi mag tratrabaho! #exerciseyourright,” declared Estrada on her Instagram account.
Comelec spokesman James Jimenez acknowledged that the VCM in Binay’s precinct could be defective and ordered that the vice-president’s ballot be refed to the machine “then we will respond to the rest of the problem when we get there.”
In Pasig and Makati, mayoral candidate Vico Sotto and reelectionist Nancy Binay deferred casting their votes in their respective precincts until the VCM issue gets fixed.
Vote-buying was also reported in Metro Manila and in Olongapo in Zambales.
Quezon City mayoral candidate, Rep. Bingbong Crisologo was arrested on Sunday night for allegedly protecting his supporters who were involved in vote-buying activities.
Sixty people in Makati City were also arrested for vote-buying, some of who were alleged supporters of incumbent Mayor Abigail “Abby” Binay.
READ:
Poe unable to vote in San Juan precinct as VCM breaks down
Vote-buying, harassment reported in Zambales
Meanwhile, explosions hit the town hall of Datu Odin Sinsuat municipality in Maguindanao province at about 1 a.m. on Monday.
This came three hours after two rifle grenades fired from a distance exploded some 20 meters away from the back fence of Cotabato City hall. No individual was reported hurt in the two incidents.
Lt. Colonel Sabri Lakibul, the town’s police chief, said a closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage caught two men aboard a motorbike, tossing what could be a hand grenade, and later sped away.
“The motive was simply to sow fear,” he said.
In Cotabato City, initial investigation revealed that 40-millimeter (mm) grenades fired from M-79 grenade launchers could have caused the blasts at about 10:15 p.m. on Sunday at the proposed site of the Children’s Park in Purok Omar, Barangay Rosary Heights 10.
City police investigators and members of the bomb ordnance disposal team have yet to determine the cause of the explosion.
READ: Blasts rock Cotabato, Maguindanao town
ANGELICA BALLESTEROS, WILLIAM DEPASUPIL, DEMPSEY REYES, PATRICK ROXAS, MASIDING NOOR YAHYA
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