Transcript of Interpallation, Senate Session Hall, 23 May 2016

Aquino: Will the gentleman from Ilocos yield to a few questions?

Marcos: I will yield to questions but with the understanding that I will decline to answer anything on the merits of some of the complaints and accusations and the allegations that have been made as to the irregularities of the conduct of the campaign and the counting. Simply because I believe that this is not the proper forum for that.

Aquino: Would you be willing to answer questions on the speech you had just made?

Marcos: Yes, certainly.

Aquino: Thank you very much, Mr. President. Mr. President, I would like to echo also the call of the Senator from Ilocos Norte for eternal vigilance. 

 I think right now, that is the call for all of us. All of the candidates. All of the people in different campaign teams, to be vigilant because as we know, the counting isn’t over yet. 

 And as Senator Marcos’ camp is vigilant, I’m sure the other camps are also vigilant as well to make sure that no other – that nothing untoward happens during the canvassing process. 

 So let me ask a few questions regarding some of the points that Senator Marcos had raised. Mr. President, you talked about the changes in the transparency server and to be frank, that was very troublesome, I think, for all of us when we found out that the transparency server was changed right there and then. 

 In fact, I think Comelec castigated Smartmatic for having done that. But Mr. President, I’d like to clarify that this was done to the transparency server. 

 Are you alleging that this was also done to the two other servers with an independent mechanism compared to the transparency server, Mr. President?

Marcos: It is precisely why I have requested and have yet to receive any comment, answer or even acknowledgement of the request to look into the COMELEC server and to have my I.T. experts to look into the COMELEC server and to see if this is manipulation, interference changes had been done. 

 So, unfortunately those requests have fallen on deaf ears thus far.

Aquino: So in short, Mr. President, your call for a full audit is to find out if there were any irregularities in the two other servers?

Marcos: Well, amongst other things, yes.

Aquino: So in short Mr. President, currently, we only know that the transparency server was modified and of course, the story was because of the cosmetic change. 

 But you want to check if there were also changes in the two other servers.

Marcos: Well, I’d also like to check whatever happened as I think it has been explained in the various media. The fact that you have entered or rechanged the values of the hashcode have changed simply indicates that the file was entered into. How many times it was entered into? What was done while the file was open? And the operator was in the file and changing different parts of it? 

 We cannot tell. And that’s why this assurance that we are being given that it was merely a cosmetic change simply has no proof behind it. Merely the assurances. 

 But I think it is unanimous thus far, that so long as the file has been opened, and remains open which it did; it remained open until about 8 ‘o’clock on May 10 at which point the – I’m sorry this was later in the day on May 10^th – until it was brought up by some of the watchers, and another Venezuelan operative of Smartmatic says “I’ll fix it” and basically locked the file open and thereby leaving it open to, for anyone to come so whatever changes were made over and above this so-called n change, then we cannot tell. 

 This is why we have asked to look at the audit logs. We have asked to look at the transmission logs. We have asked to look at the receiving logs. 

 We have asked to look at all of the records so we can see, we can be sure that the different values have remained consistent all throughout.

Aquino: On that note, Mr. President, I think parties have come on record, even Congresswoman Robredo to say that we are open to a full audit.

Marcos: Unfortunately those parties will not be the ones to decide whether or not we can go in and have a look at the servers. It is only the COMELEC who can give that authority.

Aquino: That’s true Mr. President, I just wanted to state that for the record. But going back to the question on the transparency server, I take it Mr. President that you don’t accept the COMELEC explanation of what had happened. 

 They had come out very strongly to say that this was merely a cosmetic change.

Marcos: I can stand here and say many things, Mr. President but I have to back it up with data, with proof, with evidence and they have not done that.

Aquino: Thank you, Mr. President. 

 You are saying it yourself that any accusation must be backed up with the proper data, with the proper numbers and currently Mr. President, right now, your assertions on the transparency server – is there any data? 

 Or you are merely calling for opening up of the server for scrutiny, Mr. President.

Marcos: No, quite the contrary Mr. President. We wouldn’t bother asking all of these authorizations to go in had we not spotted many discrepancies that need to be clarified. This is not a fishing expedition. It is something that is clearly in aide of clarifying the irregularities that were clearly seen and admitted to by both COMELEC and Smartmatic.

Aquino: Mr. President, are you referring to the n problem or are you referring to the so-called trend that you were mentioning earlier? What irregularity in particular are you exactly talking about?

Marcos: Again, there are many – too many I think for us to go through here. As I’ve said when I spoke that I will act at the proper time and the proper place. We’ll detail those irregularities, those discrepancies that we have found and furthermore to (inaudible) oneself, we’ll give reports, we’ll give analyses, we’ll give affidavits, statements from witnesses and many whistleblowers as well will come forward. And they’ve decided to come clean in their part on all of this.

Aquino: So Mr. President, you’re saying that you have evidence and data but you don’t wish to say it today? 

Marcos: Exactly, I do not think that an interpellation on the plenary floor is the place to do it. I think that when the canvassing starts, these will be detailed to the canvassing board when we…

Aquino: Well, Mr. President one thing that you mentioned earlier was the change in the trend. You talked I think about 8:00 PM when votes, when the trend started to go against you and for Congresswoman Robredo. 

 And I’d just like to mention Mr. President for the record that numerous academicians have actually said that there is nothing irregular about that. 

Marcos: Numerous academicians have said that there is. So it is not ….

Aquino: Two, Mr. President. You have two academicians saying that there were… 

Marcos: Ano ba ‘to, paramihan ng academicians? ‘O naghahanap tayo ng katotohanan? 

Aquino: Mr. President, if I may finish my question. And in that course Mr. President, a number of academicians have said that the likelihood for the simplest answer is true. That in the first few hours, the votes came from NCR, Region 1, Region 2. 

 And of course Mr. President, you won handily in many of these areas. And, at around the date – the time – that you had mentioned, these are when votes that came from other areas from the Philippines where Congresswoman Robredo won started to come in. Mr. President, a lot of – you know, if you look at where these votes came from, the explanation is not as fantastic as maybe a hashcode change or a hacking that had happened but there are records, Mr. President, and I join you in asking COMELEC to open up these records to show exactly where these votes had come from.

Marcos: At the proper time Mr. President, I will show that that trend did not depend on the early returns of votes that came from Regions 1,2,3 or wherever I am perceived to have been strong. The transmittal of votes – you have to separate the two – the official COC from the provincial canvasser and the transmitted votes from the precincts.

 As you know, the precinct votes were transmitted immediately upon closure of the precinct. And the COCs were only transmitted upon completion of the provincial canvass. So if we were to look at the actual precincts that had reported, that had transmitted results, then that contention that it is only from Regions 1, 2 and 3 that came in first is simply not true. Perhaps the first that came in were from those areas but in small percentages so that if you look at the percentages of votes that had actually come in from different places it was fairly even.

Aquino: Mr. President, on another note, we talked about the unfortunate change that Smartmatic…

Marcos: Unfortunate? Mr. President? I think I would characterise it rather as more than unfortunate. It is illegal. 

Aquino: Yes, Mr. President, I think COMELEC itself has already castigated – 

Marcos: Castigating Smartmatic does not remedy the situation. How was it allowed to happen? How was it allowed that the password of the COMELEC was used by a Smartmatic staff operative employee was allowed to use the COMELEC password to make that change without an end banker solution authorizing such a change? That is a question that up to this day we have yet to find an answer for. 

Aquino: And we join you Mr. President in trying to find the answers to these queries. Mr. President what I would like to ask is that if you are avering that these changes affected the elections, are you also saying that it only affected the vice-presidential race?

Marcos: I do not know what happened. Exactly. This is the whole point. We do not know what happened when Marlon Garcia opened the file and changed the so-called ñ.

What else did he change – did he change more? Did he change nothing? Did he change my name? Did he change the numbers? What did he do? What else did he do? 

And after he had done whatever it is he had to do, what else did anyone since the file was then opened, what else did anyone go in and change afterwards? And after the file was locked open, and that was by putting the first hashcode after the second hashcode, thereby, essentially locking it open.

Who else went into that file and made alterations? We don’t know. That is the whole point of my – of what we’re trying to talk about. What happened? What is it – if we can be shown that the changes were indeed cosmetic, you will never hear about this from me again. But we still have to determine whether or not anything else was changed. What changes were made, who made them and under whose authority? 

Aquino: And more importantly, Mr. President, who should be penalized for that? I think you will agree with me on that, if I’m not mistaken. 

Marcos: I’m sure that this is part of the question but I think more to the point is we need to find out exactly what happened. We have to be sure that the conduct of the elections were in fact fair and honest and transparent.

That is to this point, not that case, simply because we have not received any answers from the COMELEC on the questions that we have raised to them and we also have not received any authorisation to inspect the servers and the logs as we have asked the COMELEC.

Aquino: Mr. President, just a final question. Mr. President, kung kayo na po mismo nagsabi na hindi ho natin alam kung mayroon ngang nangyari, hindi ho ba premature na sabihin na may pandarayang nangyayari? Kayo na po mismo nagsabi hindi natin alam kung may nangyari.

Marcos: Wala pa akong sinasabi na may pandarayang nangyari sa pagpalit ng server. Ang sinasabi kong pandaraya ay iyong mga picture, iyong mga video na nakita natin na sa ibang lugar hindi pinayagang bumoto.

Mayroon akong mga video na siguro nakita naman ng lahat ng tao – mga bago mag-rally, na nagbibigay ng pera at ng vote-buying etcetera etcetera.

Lahat iyan ay pandaraya lahat iyan. Maliwanag dahil mayroon nga kaming ebidensya na mayroon ngang pandaraya. Ngayon, kung ang pandarayang yan ay doon lamang sa vote-buying, doon lamang sa intimidation, doon lamang sa hindi pinayagang bumoto ang ibang botante – kung hindi doon pati sa transparency server, doon pa rin sa server log, sa audit log ay ibang usapan yan. Dahil wholesale na iyan. 

Kaya iyan ang aming gustong makita. Kaya’t yan ang aming hinahanap at hinihingi – humihingi kami ng authorization galing sa COMELEC na tingnan para malaman.

Eh, siguro naman ako na mauuna na matutuwa kapag malaman ko na hindi nagkaproblema. Ako na ang unang-unang magsasabi – mas gumaan ang aking loob dahil alam ko na ang nangyari.

Eh, ang problema hindi tayo naipapaliwanag nang mabuti ng COMELEC at hindi tayo pinababayaan na tingnan ng mabuti para iliwanag nang mabuti kung ano ba talaga ang nangyari sa loob ng mga server, sa loob ng ating mga transmission, sa loob ng ating mga vote counting machine. 

Aquino: Mr. President, kung ikaw na po ang unang gagaan ang loob, ako na po yung pangalawang gagaan ang loob kapag naibukas na po ang lahat ng iyan.

And I would like to thank the gentleman for answering my questions. I know it’s a very trying time for him and his family.

Thank you for answering my questions, Mr. President.

But, for the record, I’d also like to reiterate what the good gentleman from Ilocos Norte had said which is “Pagdating sa transparency server wala pa talagang masasabing dayaan dahil hindi pa nga ito nalalaman.”

Thank you very much for that, Mr. President. 

Mr. President, thank you very much for your time.