WHEN nearly half of election returns had already been tallied less than two hours after the May 2022 national elections, former Information and Communications Technology Secretary Eliseo Rio knew something was wrong. He knew right on the spot that there was “cheating” in the manner of transmitting the votes knowing the state of the Philippine IT infrastructure.
During the first hour after the May 9 polls closed, over 20 million votes had already been cast, the fastest in the history of Philippine elections.
“It was really impossible,” said Rio, citing that he knew Philippine telecommunication companies could not perform at that speed.
Time dragged its feet while the results raced in, the public knew it was time for the return of the Marcos family. Indeed, Marcos Jr. stood tall on the electoral battlefield, with then-Vice President Leni Robredo a distant contender.
Later that night, after over 90 percent of election returns had been transmitted, a barrage of posts signaling the public’s questions about the fast election results had trended. Many are now turning to the Commission on Elections (Comelec). Is this the true result? Or has the public been duped under the guise of “transparency.”
These questions were now thrown out in the box as Marcos restored the Kingdom he once fled. Nearly two years into his presidency, critics remain on the lookout for every move the poll body takes, and prove that Comelec did the public dirty during the May 2022 elections.
Rio, along with ex-elections commissioner Augusto Lagman, and former Finance Executives Institute president Franklin Ysaac filed an urgent petition in the High Court last November 3, 2022. The trio argued that counting over 20 million votes within the first hour after polls closed in the May 9, 2022 presidential election was highly improbable, if not impossible.
“We are not after who really won last May 2022 elections but we are eager to know the process the Comelec underwent in handling the elections because the results were statistically improbable,” Rio said in an exclusive sit-down interview with Orion Post.
In November 2023, Rio protested that the previously held national election results were fraudulent and submitted a petition to the poll commission, requesting the opening and recounting of 30 sealed ballot boxes in Sto. Tomas City, Batangas, where an election protest was pending.
What really happened in Batangas?
Three candidates from Sto. Tomas City, Batangas joined forces to petition for the cancellation and recount of the 2022 mayoral election results, which declared Arth Jhun Marasigan as the winner.
Armenius Silva, Banjoe Manzanilla, and Timmy Almeda filed a complaint with the Comelec less than two weeks after the election, claiming there were irregularities during the May 9 voting. The three candidates raised concerns about unusually high voter turnout and statistical inconsistencies in the election results.
Marasigan was declared the winner with 46,566 votes, while his running mate, Cathy Jaurigue-Perez, secured the vice-mayor position with 50,606 votes.
The candidates claimed that the voting results were suspicious because they each received almost identical numbers of votes in several precincts, showing a consistent and possibly irregular pattern.
The similarity of the case also prompted the trio to choose Sto Tomas, Batangas, instead of Comelec’s suggestion of choosing one precinct per region.
But just months away from the filing of candidacy for the 2025 midterm elections, the Comelec has yet to open these ballot boxes.
‘Let’s go back to the original ballots’
Citing reports thrown to the Comelec, the poll body chair George Garcia said in a televised interview last November that it is keen on opening the ballot boxes to prove that the commission has nothing to hide and to prove that the 2022 elections were clean.
“Ang solusyon diyan simple lang: let’s go back to the ballots, let’s go back to the original ballots… let’s open the ballot boxes, and let’s recount the ballots kasi po doon natin mapapatunayan kung ‘yung mismong result ng balota sa mismong ballot box ay tumutugma sa na-print na election returns at na-transmit na results sa mismong canvassing area,” Garcia said.
However, several months after Garcia promised to open the ballots and staying silent as a locked vault despite the flood of calls from Rio’s camp, the commissioner dismissed the trio’s petition to open the ballot boxes and stalled to declare the “failure of elections” saying that the “failure of election is contrary to the remedy they are requesting, which is counting of the ballots.”
Following the dismissal of their request to open the ballot boxes, Rio said that this decision “only highlights their belief” that they would “pinpoint where the cheating happened” if they were granted access, which is why their petition was denied.
“If they are confident that we won’t discover anything, why are they scared, and why won’t they allow us access [to the ballot boxes],” he said.
Ballot boxes sit silent, ‘secrets’ veiled
Petitioners are likewise barred from opening ballot boxes from any precincts in the country, aside from Sto. Tomas City, Batangas, the decision noted.
“If there is nothing to fear and nothing to hide, then why is Comelec no longer opening ballot boxes?,” he said.
With the petition denied and an ongoing protest in Sto. Tomas City, Batangas, the ballot boxes will remain unopened due to a protective order. This will make it challenging for Rio’s camp to provide concrete evidence that the election results were rigged.
Despite this, Rio remains firm in his belief that the election results were not clean. On his personal Facebook account, he consistently shares data from the Comelec website, which has been cross-examined by a third-party forensic analyst to discuss how the alleged “magic” with Smartmatic results occurred.
Where did the first ‘hocus-pocus’ ignite the flame of wonder?
Based on the said data, the unknown private internet protocol (IP) address 192.168.0.2 was alleged as the culprit in the previously held elections. This IP address, 192.168.0.2, is suspected to be the conduit for millions of votes during the initial tallying and bypassed the designated telecommunications providers—Globe, Smart, and Dito. Essentially, according to Rio, this IP address purportedly acted as the intermediary during the vote transmission process as it was used in 98.8 percent of vote counting machines in Metro Manila, 95.5 percent in Cavite, and 81 percent in Batangas.
Reports showed that over 36.8 percent of the election results were already received in less than an hour, showcasing the speed of the VCMs according to Comelec.
Rio countered this by saying it’s impossible because precincts were supposed to remain open until all voters were served, even after 7 PM. After that, assigned teacher-inspectors had to finish other tasks for the vote counting including printing eight copies of election returns, which took around 30 minutes. Only after completing these tasks could they transmit the results.
Referring to a computer forensics analysis of the election returns, Rio pointed out a “significant example” of alleged manipulation in the 2022 elections: Panfilo Lacson placed third in his Cavite stronghold behind his rivals Marcos and Robredo. Cavite, with 3,371 clustered precincts, had more than Ilocos Norte (822) and Camarines Sur (2,183), which were the bailiwicks of his competitors, which Rio claimed to be “statistically highly improbable.”
“It is statistically highly improbable that Lacson, who topped all elections when he ran for national positions in Cavite, including the 2004 Election where he ran for President against the incumbent Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and popular movie personality Fernando Poe Jr, would get only 80,436 votes in his home province Cavite and place only third,” Rio said.
So far, none of Marcos’ opponents have come forward to dispute the results of the 2022 elections even with the claims uncovered by Rio’s camp.
‘A highway called Osmeña’
Aside from the opening of ballots, Rio’s camp likewise ordered the poll body to look into the alleged meetings between Smartmatic and Liza Araneta-Marcos that transpired in the weeks leading to the May 2022 elections.
Under the Article 5.13 of the Contract with the Commission for the Procurement of Secure Electronic Transmission Services (SETS), it states that Smartmatic employees, representatives, and agents “shall not make any direct or indirect contact” with any political or partisan party.
In a surprising development, Marcos’ former General Campaign Manager Executive Secretary Vic Rodriguez did not stutter to confirm that Araneta-Marcos indeed met with Smartmatic president Roger Piñate along Osmeña Highway.
Rodriguez said he did not attend the meeting because he believed it was “improper” but reiterated multiple times that the meeting in question really happened as disclosed by former Biliran Representative and lawyer Glenn Chong.
For its part, the Comelec said it would investigate the allegations. As of now, there has been no official confirmation from the Marcos camp regarding whether the First Lady did indeed meet with Smartmatic or their stance on the alleged contract violation following the meeting between the voting system provider and the first lady.
