STATEMENT
May 12, 2025

With the verified incident reports gathered so far, there is more than enough empirical basis to call for manual counting at the precinct level before electronic transmission.

For one, there are cases of “overvoting” even if there were only slight smudges in the shaded circle. Certain voters have also complained about voter receipts showing national and local candidates they did not vote for. As regards the party-list race, there were those who said that the voter receipt showed not the one they voted for, but the one that came before or after their preferred party-list’s number.

These problems in the voting process are not the responsibility of the voters. Clearly these are the Comelec’s which the poll body should rectify without delay so that the election’s credibility will not be compromised. Adding to the uncertainty is the sudden revision of the software version installed in automated counting machines. As suspicions remain about this and its impact on the credibility of the voting process, Comelec should urgently adopt manual counting.

Given the uncertainty, COMELEC should practice transparency. Manual counting upholds the sanctity of the vote while ensuring a transparent, public tallying process and reinforcing trust in democratic elections. While it can slow down the process, it is better to be slow but sure instead of fast but uncertain. COMELEC should not use fast turnaround time as an indicator of success when there are real problems with the current ACMs.

There is still time for the COMELEC National Office to issue a directive to all BEIs, asking them to conduct manual counting before they transmit the results. Even if this is an additional task for them, we are confident that our hardworking teachers are more than willing to do their share to protect the sanctity of the ballot. For this effort, they should also be duly compensated.

Kontra Daya repeats our call for manual counting before electronic transmission. This is an important action that the COMELEC cannot simply ignore.

For verification and more information, please contact Dr. Danilo Arao, Kontra Daya convenor (danilo.arao@up.edu.ph)