MANILA, Philippines - Former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) chairman Manoling Morato said on Thursday that 2 of the 7 fraud operators, who allegedly offered to cheat for Lakas-Kampi presidential candidate Gilberto "Gibo" Teodoro Jr. for P1 billion, work in the Commission on Elections' (Comelec) "anti-fraud division."

"Two are in anti-fraud division," Morato told ANC's Headstart on Thursday. Another one, identified as Artie, is allegedly an election operator, while 4 others could be just working for the group, he said.

The Comelec, however, has no anti-fraud division. The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is one agency that has such a unit.

Morato, who still sits in the PCSO board, was allegedly asked by the election operators to tell Teodoro what they could do for him in the May 10 elections.

Morato, also a former Movie and Television Review and Classification (MTRCB) board chief, supported Teodoro's failed presidential bid.

Teodoro is running a far fourth in the presidential elections behind Sen. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, former President Joseph Estrada, and Sen. Manny Villar, with at least 90% of results already counted in the various tallies.

Not sure if he can pin down

On Wednesday, Morato agreed to identify the 7 operators from Comelec's list of employees with corresponding pictures.

During the ANC interview, Morato said he was not sure if he would be able to identify the men, particularly Artie, through a photo gallery.

"I don't know. I see so many faces a day, maybe 500 a day," he said.

Morato said he would not go out of his way to go to the Comelec and identify the alleged operators. He said he would just wait for the Comelec to come to him.

Morato testified under oath before the House committee on suffrage and electoral reform's hearing on the allegations of fraud by several candidates, most of whom lost in the May 10 elections.

P1 billion to cheat, protect

He said the 7 operators went to his office in Quezon City the first week of February and presented their "two-pronged" operation, which they were offering to Teodoro in exchange for P1 billion.

The operators allegedly said they can do 2 things for Teodoro: cheat for him, or protect him from being cheated.

Morato said that despite his belief that Teodoro would not take the offer, he decided to entertain the 7 men to get information about their scheme.
 
He said the operators bragged they could tamper with the source code, swap memory cards, block the transmission of results from the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines, and send fake election results to the canvassing servers, including those at the national level.

Morato said that he told the men to wait for his call within 2 weeks, but if he does not call, it means he is not taking the offer.

He said he never even bothered telling Teodoro nor warn him about the supposed scheme because the candidate "is more intelligent than me."

Morato said that despite being informed about the "vital" details of the scheme, he remained confident about the automated election system.

Real identities needed

Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez said during Wednesday's hearing that the real identity of the supposed operators is essential to Morato's testimony.

Golez said that without the names of the operators, Morato's testimony would be just like the "fantastic" revelation of "Koala boy," a self-confessed operator of alleged PCOS machine players in the May 10 elections.