The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has ordered the pre-shaded official ballots from Maluso, Basilan, to be secured and brought to its main office in Manila for investigation.
Comelec Executive Director Teopisto Elnas issued the order in a memorandum dated September 15, directing Acting Basilan Provincial Election Supervisor Miguel Roberto Dela Pena to secure the compromised ballots and turn them over to Senior Staff Monitor Vergil Juan Soriano. Soriano was instructed to bring the ballots to the Comelec main office in Intramuros and submit them to the Law Department.
A total of 16,563 official ballots covering 36 polling precincts in Maluso were found to have been pre-shaded before voting began for the Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections on September 14. The discovery prompted Comelec to order the reprinting of the affected ballots, delaying voting in the 36 precincts until September 15.
The replacement ballots were delivered from the Comelec central office and allowed voting to resume in Maluso on September 15. More than 16,000 replacement ballots arrived early that morning, according to the Philippine News Agency.
Comelec Chairman George Garcia said the commission would investigate the incident and seek accountability from those responsible. He said authorities were considering electoral sabotage charges, while Comelec officials were also looking into whether candidates could have been involved.
Under Philippine election law, electoral sabotage is treated as a special election offense when vote tampering involves more than 10,000 votes. The offense carries a penalty of life imprisonment.
The incident occurred as voters in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao took part in the region’s first parliamentary elections. In Maluso, voters were electing four representatives to the regional parliament from Basilan.
Comelec’s investigation into the pre-shaded ballots is expected to determine how the official election materials were compromised and identify those who may be responsible.
