Data found in supposed unused SD cards and vote counting machines (VCMs) in the presidential election last May bolster the election protest of former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., his legal team said on Monday.

“This strengthens our position that massive fraud was indeed committed in the last elections because SD cards from unused VCM should be empty. However, we have confirmed today that indeed they have data in them so that bolsters our position,” said lawyer Victor Rodriguez, who also serves as the spokesperson of Marcos.

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The Commission on Elections conducted the decryption of 26 of the 127 SD cards found to have data during the stripping of 1,356 unused VCMs last October 2016.

Marcos lost by a comparatively small margin against Vice President Ma. Leonor “Leni” Robredo during the election. Since then, he has filed election protests alleging fraud that supposedly made Robredo win.

“During the decryption, 13 of the 26 SD cards were found to have folders containing data in them. Decryption was still being conducted as of press time,” the camp of Marcos said.

“How can more than 120 SD cards have data in them when they came from VCMs kits that were not used? This is highly questionable. This also supports our contention that the VCMs should be preserved until the election protest is concluded in the PET (Presidential Election Tribunal) because they represent an important aspect in the protest,” Rodriguez said.

He said they will not give up the election protest “despite the many hurdles thrown their way.”

“Of course we will fight this until the very end because the integrity of the country’s election system is at stake here and we would not stop until we shall have exposed all the fraud and machinations they carried out and continuously carry out until the present,” Rodriguez said. RAM/rga

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