Press Release
December 22, 2008

Treasurers warned against tampering of ballots in Koko's electoral protest

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today warned treasurers in local government units against allowing themselves to be used in tampering disputed ballots in the electoral protest of Genuine Opposition bet Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III against Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri of Team Unity in connection with the May l4, 2007 senatorial election.

Pimentel issued the warning in the wake of reports of attempts to illegally open ballot boxes that are in the custody of city, municipal and provincial treasurers and to tamper with the ballots.

"We are warning the treasurers and all concerned having custody of the questioned ballot boxes involved in Koko Pimentel's protest with the Senate Electoral Tribunal that they risk criminal prosecution if they allow any tampering," he said.

Already completed by the SET was the recount of ballots consisting of 2,658 polling precincts in seven provinces in Maguindanao, Lanao del Norte, Shariff Kabunsuan, Basilan, Sultan Kudarat, Lanao del Sur and Sulu involving 391,081 votes which were identified by Koko Pimentel in his protest.

The SET found out that more than 90 percent of the ballots cast in these areas was spurious. This means that the bogus votes are invalidated.

The process has dragged on for several months because Zubiri has filed a counter-protest which involves about 73,000 precincts in Metro Manila and several provinces.

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