Amidst cheating allegations of Marcos camp; Robredo confident her victory is clean

Photo taken from a live TV coverage of CNN

Metro Manila  — It’s the day the Liberal Party (LP) and Leni Robredo’s supporters have been waiting for — her victory in the vice presidential race formally proclaimed after she won by a narrow margin against Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos.

The outgoing Camarines Sur representative said in an interview she is also excited and anxious about her new job.

“Excited ako, siyempre may kaunting takot kasi marami namang wala sa control natin,” Robredo said. “Pero siguro mas nangingibabaw ang excitement na binibigyan ako ng bibihirang pagkakataon to make a difference.”

[Translation: I’m excited, of course, but a bit petrified because there are things beyond our control. But it's more excitement that I feel since I’m being given this rare opportunity to make a difference.]
Asked to comment on allegations that the results of the vice presidential race have been rigged in her favor, Robredo said she sees no logic behind that.

“Ako iyong baguhan sa partido eh, bakit ako ang makikinabang? Parang hindi ko nakikita ang logic noon,” Robredo said. [I’m a rookie in the party, why will I benefit from it? I can’t see the logic in that.]

Robredo said her conscience is clear. And she believes that the Liberal Party is equally clean.
“Ang sa akin, ang interes ko ay ang mailabas ang katotohanan kasi kailangan ko ring makita na wala naman akong kasalanan, walang kasalanan ang partido. Sigurado ako na walang ginawa ang LP sa akin,” said Robredo.

[Translation: On my part, I’m interested to know the truth because I want to see that I have not been part of any cheating and that the party has nothing to do with it. In fact, I’m sure that LP didn't do anything for me.]

Robredo, however, said she also would like to know if there was indeed cheating. She said for her to be able to defend herself, she wanted to know everything — including the statements of witnesses.

“Ang datos naman nagpapakita na lahat kasinungalingan ang nilalabas nila. Kung mayroong bago sana ubusin na nila para kami naman na nasa posisyon dumepensa, makapag depensa,”Robredo said. “Kasi ako, kung totoo yan, interesado rin ako.”

[Translation: Data show that what they’re saying are all lies. If there is any new information, I hope that they disclose it so I can defend myself once and for all… I’m also interested to know if it’s true.]
“Gaya ng sabi ko dati, ang eleksyon na ito ay naging pangit in the sense na naging very divisive siya. Iyong away away ng mga tao saka iyong mga komento naging very vicious na kailangan nating mag rebuild. Hindi nakakatulong ang ganito,”she added.

[Translation: As I said, this election has been very ugly in the sense that it became very divisive. All the arguments and the comments have become very vicious, that’s why we need to rebuild. This issue doesn't help.]

Before proceeding to the Batasang Pambansa complex for her proclamation on Monday, Robredo attended a Thanksgiving Mass at the St. Peter’s Church on Commonwealth Ave. in Quezon City with her daughters Aika, Tricia, and Jillian.

The Robredo ladies were accompanied by the incoming vice president’s lawyer, Romulo Macalintal, Robredo’s campaign manager, Sen. Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino, members of the Liberal Party and other supporters.

Witnesses on alleged cheating surface

As congress proclaims the next president and vice president of the country, three persons surfaced and claimed there was indeed cheating during the elections.

They went to the Senate with Boy Saycon of the Council of Philippine Affairs to reveal the supposed rigging of the polls.

One of the so-called whistleblowers said they are local government employees in Quezon. He said he was the logistics supervisor during the elections, while his two companions were the ones encoding and 'fixing' the votes that were fed to the servers.

The man claimed a high ranking government official from LP ordered them to do it.

One of the witnesses also claimed that they were supervised by people allegedly from Smartmatic, the poll service provider for the 2016 elections.

“We manipulate what is brought to us by the municipality. This is where we add the numbers and rini-refine namin dinadala sa Smartmatic. Sila ay may bato sa lahat ng server,” he said.

[Translation: We manipulate what is brought to us by the municipality. This is where we add the numbers, and then refine it before it is brought to Smartmatic. They are the ones who transmit (results) to servers.]

The man said they were given pre-programmed memory cards and they copied and pasted votes for LP’s Mar Roxas, Leni Robredo and other candidates.

He claimed roughly 200,000 votes were taken from Marcos and 300,000 votes were added to Robredo.

The man also claimed returning senator Franklin Drilon benefited with about 100,000 votes.