House Secretary General Clarifies Bayan Muna Statement

Source: mindanaoexaminer.com

MANILA, Philippines - House Secretary General Marilyn Barua-Yap, in behalf of Speaker Prospero Nograles, thanked all those who came to witness the "Consolidation and Canvassing System" installation at the Plenary Hall of the House of Representatives on Thursday."The installation was witnessed by representatives of the different political parties, citizens' arm and the Media. Their vigilance will truly help ensure credible canvassing of the Presidential and Vice Presidential votes in the May 10 elections," Yap said.

At the same time, the House official clarified she never mentioned during the installation that "those results that were not electronically transmitted will be entered in the CCS manually by entering the physically transmitted memory or CF cards."

"Hindi ko sinabi yan. Maybe I was just misunderstood," Yap said, adding that the presence of Comelec representatives were not required during the installation as the process only needed SMARTMATIC representatives turning over the CCS hardware and its peripherals to the Senate and installed at the House Plenary Hall.

"That explains the absence of Comelec at the installation," Yap said.

Yap was reacting to a press statement by party-list Bayan Muna Reps. Teddy Casino and Neri Colmenares who were among those present during the said installation.

Even as the installed CCS machines are in the House Plenary hall, Yap explained that the CCS hardware is under the custody of the Senate.

"This is why Senate security personnel are guarding it on a round-the-clock basis, with House Security providing peripheral security," Yap said.