COMMISSION on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Erwin Garcia on Monday said those behind the demolition campaign against him have shown their hand because they always insist on using “obsolete and dilapidated” counting machines that came from the poll body’s previous technology provider.
“All those who throw garbage at us have only one motive because if you will notice, in all their press conferences … What’s at the end? Use the old [counting] machines,” Garcia said.
“It does not jibe. [They are accusing me of] corruption [and] bribery [but] at the end, use the old [counting] machines? You be the judge. Why are they insisting that we use the old machines if the issues are about corruption and bribery? I don’t see the connection between those two,” he said in Filipino and English.
Commission on Election (COMELEC) Chairman George Erwin M. Garcia. (PHOTO: MIKE ALQUINTO)
Garcia said the Comelec has already traced and identified the people behind the manufacture of his 49 offshore bank accounts and six local bank accounts, adding that he is ready to divulge their identities in a proper forum.
He also pointed out that he has already proven that the smear campaigns against him were all done through the use of fake documents to make it appear that he was the owner of those bank accounts.
Aside from his critics’ insistence to use the old counting machines, Garcia also noted that his detractors were demanding his resignation.
“Resignation is not a solution. The solution here is to ferret out the truth. Who is behind all of these?” the official said.
Garcia said he has documents to prove that as early as May 2024, the previous technology provider, in a letter, repeatedly asked him to use the old counting machines but did not comment on it, saying that it is “subjudice” because of a pending case before the Supreme Court.
The most important thing, Garcia said, was the source of the “white paper” about his fake bank accounts.
“Where did it come from? Is it from a member of Congress? Who gave it to him and what did the bearer of the white paper promise to him? I am willing to answer all those questions because I was informed, face to face, as to who gave [the white paper] to him and what was promised to him [in return],” he added.
“I will answer all those things in a proper forum because they said that they would conduct [a congressional] hearing. I’m okay with it,” he said.
In his latest accusation, Sagip Partylist Rep. Rodante Marcoleta claimed that they were able to verify the veracity of Garcia’s two offshore accounts by depositing money in them and the bank receipts allegedly yielded the election chief’s name.
Garcia said that the two alleged bank accounts presented by the lawmaker were new accounts as they were not in the original white paper, which contains the names of his alleged 49 offshore bank accounts.
He also noted that the $100 deposits were not done by an individual but by a consulting firm or a PR firm. The first deposit was made from Chase Bank to New York Bank and the other from Chase Bank to a bank in the Cayman Islands.
Based on Marcoleta’s presentation, the consulting firm was identified as Jaleo Consulting LLC.
In a Viber message to reporters, Garcia said it was worth asking “who is Jose A. Herrera, a lawyer and appeared to be the owner of Jaleo Consulting LLC.”
Garcia said the lawyer appears to be a foreigner, adding that “he is also a director of Albatross Technologies with office address at 26 Pine Road, Pine Lodge, St., Michael Barbados.”
Marcoleta, in an earlier radio interview, said that Republic Act (RA) 9369, or the Election Automation Law of 2007, explicitly requires that “the system procured must have demonstrated capability and been successfully used in a prior electoral exercise here or abroad.”
The automated counting machines (ACMs) that Comelec will use in the 2025 elections, according to Marcoleta, violate RA 9369 because they were just mere prototypes and have not been used or tested successfully in previous elections.
Garcia refused to respond to this issue, saying it was subjudice because of a pending case in the Supreme Court, which was filed earlier by former Caloocan City representative Edgar Erice, even as he asserted that Comelec would abide by the Court decision.
Garcia pointed out though that it was Congress itself that provided the P17.9 billion fund used by the Comelec for the lease of 110,000 ACMs from winning bidder Miru Systems of South Korea.
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