Proof of Fraud: The Certificates of Canvass

In his 2007 electoral protest, Koko Pimentel contested the Municipal Certificates of Canvass (MCOC) in in the town of Sultan Kudarat in Shariff Kabunsuan. Pimentel found it fishy that some of the accompanying documents in the MCOC, the Summary of Statement of Votes, (SSOV) and the Statement of Votes by Precinct (SOVP), were all typewritten.

For him, this was already proof that the documents were accomplished not in an actual open-to-the-public canvassing as required by law but in a closed-door office setting with a large typewriter on top of a table surrounded by a select group of election operators.

But even in the handwritten COCs, there seemed to be another problem. The tally in the total number of votes for Pimentel and his rival Juan Miguel Zubiri simply didn’t add up. The sum of the votes for Zubiri was padded, while that of Pimentel was shaved. (Compare the typewritten COC with the handwritten one)