Palace says up to Comelec to probe into Sotto’s expose

March 7, 2018

Malacanang said on Wednesday it would be up to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to investigate on the expose made by Senator Vicente Sotto III on alleged irregularities in the 2016 elections.

Apparently convinced there was really cheating in the previous national elections, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque expressed belief Duterte could have received votes even higher than 16 million.

"No doubt that the camp of the president (believed) that the president received more votes than the 16 million," he said.

Duterte garnered 16.6 million votes, 6.6 million higher than his closest rival then Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas in the 2016 polls.

In a privilege speech on Tuesday, Sotto, citing a reliable source, said he received confidential information  the results of the 2016 polls were altered.

He cited that transmission of the supposed results of the elections came a day earlier than the actual polls in some areas, particularly in a municipality in Albay.

"So that is possible but the president is allowing the Comelec to investigate first and let's see if there are really election violations that took place," Roque said.

He said the preliminary investigation lies in the hands of the Comelec law department.

Roque urged the public to wait for the results of the poll body's probe as he assured that Duterte will implement the law.

He said the Senate could also initiate its own investigation.

"We will also see if the president will order the other branches of government to conduct their own probe. But as of now, it's the exclusive jurisdiction of the (Comelec) law department to conduct a preliminary investigation on the election offenses," he added. Celerina Monte/DMS