lacson wants maguindanao board disbanded .

this smells to high heavens as a marcos election bs on this
current age.

MANILA, Philippines - Re-elected opposition Senator Panfilo Lacson
wants the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to dissolve the special
provincial board of canvassers for Maguindanao, which he said was
illegally created.

In a 13-page petition filed Monday night, Lacson also asked Comelec
not to tally anymore the results from the Maguindanao, declare the
Maguindanao proceedings that it ordered null and void and quickly
proclaim the last winning senator.

Lacson said the Comelec sitting as the National Board of Canvassers
did not have the authority to form the special canvassing board for
Maguindanao, that its creation was not needed and that the commission
committed grave abuse of discretion when it turned over the second
copies of the municipal certificates of canvass (CoCs) it gathered
from Maguindanao to the special board for recounting.

He noted that canvassing boards, being ad hoc in nature, exist only
for the interim task of canvassing election returns.

"The NBC does not have administrative powers over the PBOC [provincial
board of canvass], nor does it have the administrative power to create
an SPBOC [special provincial board of canvass], much less, order it to
reconvene. This power is lodged in the Comelec," Lacson said.

"Once again, this highlights the chaos, confusion and violation of law
and procedure which plague the Honorable Commission," he added.

Comelec created the SPBOC on May 30 to re-canvass results from
Maguindanao after members of the regular provincial and municipal
boards of canvassers failed to appear before the Comelec to answer
questions on the controversial provincial certificate of canvass that
showed the entire administration Team Unity slate sweeping all 12
Senate seats in the Maguindanao voting.

The SPBOC terminated its proceedings on June 6, after failing to get
the original copies of the municipal CoCs that were supposed to back
up the provincial CoC.

Maguindanao provincial election supervisor Lintang Bedol, chair of the
regular PBOC, earlier said the municipal CoCs were stolen.

Comelec reconvened the SPBOC on June 18 to begin the re-canvass of the
second copies of the municipal CoCs that were presented by election
officers to the Comelec during a hearing in General Santos City.

After saying that the copies appeared genuine, Abalos said it was up
to the lawyers of the senatorial candidates and their parties to
question the documents' authenticity in the SPBOC proceedings.

Lacson also said Comelec erred when it went to General Santos City to
retrieve the CoC copies and turn them over to the SPBOC, which was
tasked to canvass them for "whatever they may be worth."

He also noted that the re-canvassing took place in Shariff Aguak,
Maguindanao "to make it even more difficult to question the
proceedings and for the national media outlets to cover the event."

"All of these are even done in uncharacteristic haste," he added.

The senator also said the "Copy 2" should have been immediately
rejected by Comelec because these were meant to be posted on a wall
within the premises of the canvassing center.

"Obviously, this Copy 2 of the municipal CoC was not meant to be
canvassed. The law does not even require the Copy 2 to comply with the
stringent security procedures it requires for the distribution of the
municipal CoC copy for the Commission," he explained.

He was referring to the fourth municipal CoC copy that was supposed to
be given to Comelec. This copy was supposed to be folded and sealed
with their respective paper security seals, placed in a corresponding
security envelope together with a copy of the statement of votes by
precinct and then placed in ballot boxes to be sealed, locked and
transmitted to Comelec.

"What is the use for all these elaborate security measures, if this
Honorable Commission is allowed to simply retrieve this Copy2?" Lacson
asked, adding that there were a total of six copies of the municipal
CoCs and if one was lost, all the remaining should be produced, in
accordance with Resolution 7967.

"If the provincial CoC does not reflect the true votes, the proper
procedure was to determine the true votes from the election returns
which have been submitted to the Commission, not the dubious municipal
CoCs retrieved by it," Lacson said.

The senator added that the municipal CoCs retrieved by Comelec should
have been disregarded at the outset for lack of integrity because,
being solitary copies, the authenticity of the entries could no longer
be determined.

"The Honorable Commission should not pass the buck to the SPBOC and
make it a scapegoat," he said. "It should have already ruled on
whether or not they were dubious documents which are not fit for
canvass."

Lacson, however, said that the premise of the resolution to create the
SPBOC was "false and a prevarication" since in NBC's June 15 hearing,
Comelec chair Benjamin Abalos Sr. admitted that the Maguindanao
election officers had already been summoned and called, and in fact,
had already previously arrived in Manila.

He said the officers were apparently presenting vouchers of their trip
from Maguindanao but despite such admission, Abalos declared that he
was not informed of the presence of the officers in Manila.

"Suspiciously, chairman Abalos did not find it odd that these officers
did not submit any election document to [the] Comelec," he said.

The senator argued that there was no need to create the special board
as after having determined that the provincial certificate of canvass
of Maguindanao and its accompanying summary statement of votes
contained "statistically improbable" results, the Comelec sitting as
the NBC should have required the Election Records and Statistics
Department, provincial election supervisor and municipal election
officers concerned to submit within two days the election returns.

He said under Resolution 7967 or the General Instruction for the NBC
promulgated May 14, 2007, the NBC shall count the votes as they appear
in the copies of the ERs.

"The Honorable Commission's action of retrieving election documents
from election officers in Maguindanao in the guise of a baseless 'fact-
finding' mission, and turning over the said documents to the SPBOC is
a clear violation of, if not departure from, the procedure outlined in
Resolution 7967," he said.

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