Robredo camp to supporters: Verify voter status with Comelec (Sabong News)

The camp of Vice President Leni Robredo is asking supporters to verify with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) if their names are in the active voters’ list after several complainants raised concerns over possible voter disenfranchisement. Robredo’s legal counsel Romulo Macalintal already called on the poll body to look into the issue as soon as possible. This stemmed from several complaints and concerns of certain voters who said that they were surprised to find out that their names had been “deactivated” from the list of voters despite having voted in the 2016 and 2019 elections. Macalintal said that some voters complained that they were able to vote in the 2016 and 2019 elections but they found out that their names had been deactivated “without any reason at all” when they verified with the Comelec precinct finder. “A voter said that he was registered as an overseas voter in 2016 and changed his registration to local and voted in Marikina in 2019 polls. And now his records show he is still in the list of overseas voters,” the lawyer said. “One of our lawyers who voted in 2019 found that his “record is under review” instead of being in the active file of the list of voters”, Macalintal added. One of the lawyer’s Zoom lectures revealed a voter who received a Voter Information Sheet and yet his name was deactivated when verified from Comelec’s precinct finder. READ: “This is a very serious matter as it could mean a massive disenfranchisement of voters or could be a very sytematic way of deleting names of voters to the advantage of certain candidates,” Macalintal said. He is now preparing a letter to the Comelec to raise this issue and seek immediate action by the poll body to resolve this confusion in the names of those registered in the list of voters. Former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, for his part, warned that Robredo’s supporters will not allow her to be cheated in May. “Pero (But) ultimately, ang bantay diyan, nakita niyo po ‘yung rally sa Pasay. Palagay ko pag dinaya mo ‘yung grupo na ‘yun ay hindi naman uupo lang ‘yun. Magagalit po ‘yung tao (you saw the rally in Pasay. I think if you cheat on that group, they’re not just going to stay seated. The people will get angry),” he said, adding that there might be another People Power demonstration reminiscent of what transpired in the 1986 snap elections. However, the former Navy officer assured that Team Leni-Kiko has a group of tech experts to study the options available to prevent massive cheating. The team also has volunteer organizations like the 1Sambayan coalition that set up a poll-watching system. “Pero (But) still, hindi tayo magko-kompiyansiya kasi, itong mga kalaban po natin ay determi– kumbaga, desperadong hawakan ‘yung kapangyarihan, ano, kaya gagawin nila lahat ng paraan. So, magbabantay pa rin tayo (we will not be complacent because our enemies are, in a sense, desperate to hold power so they will do everything. So, we will still be on guard),” Trillanes explained.