Just like in the 2016 national election, Vice President Leni Robredo said that her critics are once again controlling the public mind through their “trolls” to believe that there will be widespread fraud in the coming elections in May 2022 after groups alleged that her camp is behind hacking the computer servers of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
VP Robredo called on the poll body to conduct an “honest-to-goodness” investigation into the alleged hacking first reported by the Manila Bulletin’s Technews team.
“Yung ginawa nila in 2016, parang nagma-mind setting nga na mayroong dayaan na nangyari, [What they did in 2016, seems to be a mind setting that there was deception that happened,]” Robredo told the media at a virtual meet-up, Tuesday, January 11.
The Vice President wants the Comelec to “make public” the result of the investigation.
“Ito ‘yung ginagawa nila from the time na nagsimula sila sa social media. ‘Yung mind-setting, ginagamit ‘yung mga trolls. Ginagamit ‘yung mga trolls para mapapaniwala ang tao ng isang bagay na hindi naman, [This is what they have been doing from the time they started on social media. The mind-setting is used by the trolls. Trolls are used to make people believe something that is not true,]” insisted by VP Robredo.
On Monday, Jan. 10, the MB Technews team informed the Comelec that the sensitive information of voters may have been compromised after a group of hackers allegedly illegally entered their servers to download more than 60 gigabytes of information that could affect the polls in May 2022.
But Comelec spokesman James Jimenez denied the allegations even though the poll body is currently verifying the report.
He clarified that it is impossible for hackers to download the usernames and PINs of voter counting machines because “such information still does not exist in Comelec systems simply because the configuration files — which include usernames and PINs — have not yet been completed. . ”
Jimenez maintained that the commission complies with the Data Privacy Act.
But on social media, Robredo’s critics said her camp was behind the hacking to ensure her victory in the upcoming election.
It is similar to what her camp did in the 2016 elections when she won against her closest rival, former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
Robredo said it was “very urgent” as her spokesman, lawyer Barry Gutierrez, had previously denied critics of linking the Vice President to the alleged hacking incident.
