Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — On several occasions, Vice President Jejomar Binay had said that there was no backing out from the 2016 presidential race.
But he had also repeatedly said that in this turning point in his political career, he was running scared.
So, what’s his fear factor in next year’s elections?
It’s the possibility of poll cheating.
“Hopefully it will not come true,” Binay said. “Sana maging isang marangal na halalan.”
[Translation: “I hope we will have clean, honest elections.”]
This early, Binay said he had heard of talks about possible cheating through vote-counting machines.
A number of election watchdogs and information technology experts had claimed the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines were prone to manipulation.
But in case he lost due to cheating, Binay said he won’t take things quietly.
“Magra-rally ako. Di ako papayag. Ako ay talagang mag-aalsa,” he warned.
[Translation: “I wil take to the streets and protest. I will rise up.”]
In an earlier speech, Binay claimed that his opponent from the administration, Manuel “Mar” Roxas II was planning to cheat his way to Malacañan.
Related: Binay: Roxas camp itself behind fake P500 bills
Based on presidential pre-election surveys, Binay ranked second while Roxas was a close third. Sen.Grace Poe was the front-runner.
But Roxas had claimed he too was a victim of cheating in the past election.
In 2010, Roxas filed an election protest accusing Binay’s camp of poll fraud.
He lost to Binay in the vice presidential race by about 740,000 votes.
Because of this, Roxas had said that he would also push for clean elections next year.
Binay said he also feared of possible election overspending using government resources.
The Palace, however, dispelled this by saying that the administration would stand by its record of good governance and that the coming elections would be a referendum on “Daang Matuwid” (Straight Path).
For its part, the Commissions on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Andres “Andy” Bautista said that it would make sure that the elections would be credible.
“Ang trabaho ng botante ay bumoto nang tama. Ang trabaho namin ay bilangin ang boto nang tama.”
[Translation: “A voter’s duty is to vote properly. Our mandate is to count those votes properly.”]
CNN Philippines’ JC Gotinga contributed to this report.
