Deputy Majority Leader Atty. Marlyn Primicias-Agabas is pushing for an inquiry into a Regional Trial Court (RTC) ruling that declared the automated counting machines failed to “accurately read and count the votes cast by the voters” — a finding she says could have serious national consequences.

While the case stems from a dispute in Rosales, Pangasinan, Primicias-Agabas stressed that the implications go far beyond one town.

“This may look like a local issue, but the impact is national,” said the 6th District lawmaker.

She pointed to a dramatic turnaround in the Rosales race: a candidate who was initially proclaimed winner by 1,208 votes based on official election returns was later declared to have lost by 1,975 votes after a physical recount — a staggering 3,183-vote swing.

For Primicias-Agabas, that kind of reversal demands clear answers and full transparency from election authorities.

“If it can happen in Rosales, it can happen anywhere,” she warned, saying the entire country should be paying attention when machine results and manual recounts differ so significantly.

“The vote of every Filipino is sacred. When trust in the electoral process is lost, the very foundation of our democracy is shaken,” she said.

She framed the controversy as a test of institutional credibility and democratic resilience. Among the questions she raised: Did the Automated Counting Machines commit a grave error? Does the Commission on Elections (Comelec) agree with the trial court’s declaration that the machines miscounted votes? And if the machines were inaccurate in one municipality, could similar discrepancies have occurred elsewhere?

“Did our automatic vote counting machines commit a grave error? Does the Comelec agree with the lower court’s declaration that the machines made errors in counting the votes?” she asked.

RTC Branch 53, presided over by Judge Roselyn Andrada-Borja, ruled that the machines failed to accurately read and count votes. The court also cited complaints from voters who said their Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) or printed receipts did not match the votes they actually cast.

But Primicias-Agabas also acknowledged that the protestee raised serious concerns about the ballots reviewed during the recount. Among the alleged irregularities: Mismatched chairman’s signatures, darker microtext, misaligned Comelec logos, differences in paper color, phantom marks, and 106 extra votes that supposedly had no corresponding VVPAT receipts.

She described these as red flags that go beyond minor defects and directly call into question the integrity of the ballots used to overturn the initial result.