A group of lawyers, former government officials, and civil society leaders filed criminal complaints on Thursday against Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Garcia and other officials for allegedly tampering with the election software used in the 2025 midterm polls.
Leading the group was Isabela Vice Mayor Atty. Harold Respicio, accompanied by Atty. Alex Lacson and former Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX) president Franklin Ysaac. They appeared before the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to lodge cybercrime-related charges against the Comelec leadership.
According to Respicio, Comelec officials engaged in “system interference” by switching the election system’s software from a certified version 3.4.0 to an uncertified and unaudited version 3.5.0—allegedly without legal authority or informing transparency stakeholders.
Respicio also claimed that five million votes were deleted without the knowledge of the five accredited transparency groups monitoring the polls. “Comelec Chairman George Garcia himself admitted in media that five million results were deleted after transmission,” Respicio said.
He emphasized the scale of the alleged interference, saying each use of the wrong software during the reading of ballots constituted a separate offense. “More than 50 million instances of system interference occurred,” Respicio stated, referencing the total number of ballots processed.
Atty. Lacson added that there was a deviation from the lawful process of transmitting election results. Instead of going directly from the automated counting machines (ACMs) to the transparency servers, results were allegedly rerouted through an unauthorized “Data Center 3.”
“This intermediary system processed and consolidated the data before it reached the PPCRV, NAMFREL, media, and the dominant political parties,” Lacson said. He clarified, however, that the case aims to establish criminal liability and not to challenge the election outcome itself.
The complaint comes months after Comelec filed a cyberlibel case against Respicio over online claims questioning the integrity of the vote-counting machines. Respicio dismissed the earlier charge as retaliatory.
In response, Comelec Chair Garcia released a statement strongly denying the new allegations. “These are old accusations that have been thoroughly answered and debunked,” he said.
The NBI has yet to comment on whether a formal investigation will be launched.