Media outlets reported discovering approximately five million duplicate votes in the transmitted results of the 2025 National and Local Elections (NLE), with findings surfacing before dawn on May 13.
News organizations including GMA Integrated News and Rappler revealed that vote transmissions from various precincts across the country were duplicated during the data consolidation process by the Commission on Elections’ (COMELEC) central server.
According to Rappler, an initial system failure occurred within COMELEC’s transmission room — the main access point for accredited media to obtain official election result files. This prompted media groups to conduct rapid counts amid what was described as an “unorganized file structure.”
Even after the system was restored, the transparency server continued to detect anomalies. Several hash files — digital markers meant to verify the completeness and authenticity of transmitted results — appeared blank or corrupted.
In addition, an unnamed COMELEC official told GMA Integrated News journalist Joseph Morong that the discrepancies could be due to an aggregation tool — a software made to compile data from different sources. The source suggested that duplicate entries may have resulted from data stacking during aggregation.
COMELEC chair lays blame on ‘receiving ends’
COMELEC Chairman George Garcia denied that the duplicate vote counts came from the commission, claiming that an “intentional misinformation” occurred to “alter public perception.”
In a press conference held at the Manila Hotel Tent City, Garcia remarked that the fault lies with the “receiving ends” — pertaining to media groups and other parties — stating they did not have the proper software programs to filter duplicate entries.
“The [partial and unofficial] count had an excess of five million because of this — because the [entities and parties] did not have a program that would filter the duplicate [entries] as a result of processing,” Garcia stated.
However, Kontra Daya Convenor Dr. Danilo Arao said that the COMELEC should be “straightforward” in clarifying the issue on the discrepancy.
“How can this happen in a ‘send-to-all’ function and where [automated counting machines] are expected to transmit results only once. If this is a case of duplicated files, how did this happen? No one or no server should traffic transmissions as the transmission from the ACM is sent to the designated recipients directly,” Arao questioned.
Unofficial count declines, placements retain
After a system check by the COMELEC’s IT department between 12:23 a.m. and 4:03 a.m., adjustments were made to the unofficial vote tallies. The total votes for several senatorial, provincial, and local candidates decreased, though candidate placements remained unchanged.
Top senatorial candidate Bong Go, who initially had 26,683,453 votes, now has 21,599,993 votes — while Benigno “Bam” Aquino, who first obtained 20,572,272 votes, dropped to 16,750,496 votes.
Meanwhile, in provincial governor candidates of Pampanga, votes for Nanay Lilia Pineda dropped from 703,081 to 586,217 votes, Danilo Baylon from 472,064 to 391,616 votes, and Amado Santos from 6,812 to 5,626 votes.
Likewise in the race for Pampanga vice governor, Dennis “Delta” Pineda’s votes declined from 743,595 to 619,791, alongside Ed Panlilio from 383,606 to 318,441 votes.
