26-05-2025
House inquiry on over 1,000 alleged election-related anomalies sought
An inquiry on 1,593 alleged election-related anomalies during the conduct of the May 12, 2025 midterm polls has been sought in the House of Representatives.
Makabayan bloc lawmakers House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro, House Assistant Minority Leader Arlene Brosas and Kabataan party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel made the call under House Resolution 2291.
They said the supposed anomalies were documented by several election watchdogs such as Kontra Daya, VoteReportPH, National Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) and the Computer Professionals Union.
The alleged anomalies include 798 cases involving issues with the Automated Counting Machines (ACMs), 200 cases of illegal campaigning, 144 cases of voter disenfranchisement, and 451 other significant election violations including non-compliance by Board of Election Inspectors, red-tagging, election-related violence and harassment, vote-buying and -selling, tampering of ballots, disinformation, among others.
Likewise, the lawmakers said that the Online Voting and Counting System (OVCS) used for overseas voting lacked a Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), potentially violating Section 6(e) of the Automated Election System law, and disenfranchising voters who could not verify their votes resulting in historically low voter turnout in some overseas regions.
'Beyond technical issues and voter disenfranchisement on election day itself, there have been other election-related issues before, during, and after the elections that have marred the integrity and credibility of the election results,' the resolution read.
In addition, the lawmakers also called out the software version certified by Pro V&V, Inc. v3.4.0 version which was different from the v3.5.0 version installed on ACMs on election day, as well as the initial five million duplicate votes that affected 15,000 precincts and rankings of more than 7,600 candidates later corrected by Comelecby manually providing corrected files hours after transmission started.
'We believe that an investigation should be pursued, and that all persons or agencies that are proven to be complicit must be held accountable for disenfranchising and invalidating the votes and democratic aspirations of millions of Filipino voters,' Kabataan party-list added in a separate statement.
In response, Commission on Elections spokesperson Rex Laudiangco said the poll body stands ready to defend the successful conduct of the 2025 elections.
"Comelec is ready to appear before Congress if and when called upon to lay down facts and showcase the milestones of the most successful, fastest-ever in counting, and transmission of votes, canvassing and proclamations, most peaceful electoral exercise, highest-ever voter turn-out national and local elections in numbers," he said in a statement. —AOL, GMA Integrated News
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