MANILA, Philippines – Brushing aside calls for a manual election recount, the Palace on Wednesday, June 26, said the absence of “strong” protests shows Filipinos have accepted the election of 12 new senators.

“People would like to question the elections. Let them do that. But it’s very clear that the people have spoken and you’ve not seen any strong protests from people,” Lacierda told reporters.

He added: “The people have accepted the votes. The people have accepted the 12 as legitimately elected by them. So the people have spoken, and that’s it.”

Lacierda said this after a group called for a manual recount of the votes for senator. The group Solidarity for Sovereignty cited a supposedly uniform and pre-determined 60-30-10 share of votes, an allegedly anomalous pattern that surfaced days after the May 13 elections.

In two analysis pieces, Rappler has disproved this pattern by studying the breakdown of votes in the regions and in key cities. (Read: ‘60-30-10? Regional votes don’t support it‘ and ‘NCR, key cities disprove 60-30-10.’)

Quelling concerns over alleged fraud, Lacierda pointed out that the Comelec has conducted a random manual audit (RMA) to check the accuracy of precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.

Required under the Automated Election Law, the RMA is done by manually counting the votes and comparing these with the PCOS tally.

The Comelec is expected to release the RMA’s results on Friday, June 28. Initial reports show the PCOS is “99.9% accurate,” according to Comelec chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. – Rappler.com