Comelec council to recommend technology for 2013 polls

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) Advisory Council (CAC) will submit early next year its recommendation on the poll automation technology which the country will use in the May 2013 midterm election.

CAC chairman Louis Napoleon Casambre said the council will start evaluating the various technologies by the second week of December and would be able to make its recommendation to the Comelec before the second week of January.

“We have started sending out invitations to the various vendors and suppliers for a demonstration of their technology, and in line with our mandate, we shall keep the selection process transparent to all concerned parties,” Casambre, also the executive director of the Information and Communications Technology Office, said.

Speaking at the weekly Kapihan sa Diamond Hotel media forum, Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes urged the CAC to convene immediately so that they could decide whether to employ the technology used in the 2010 polls or hire new service providers.

“I think the Smartmatic’s PCOS (precinct count optical scan) machines could still be used in the 2013 elections,” he said.

Brillantes said it will be cheaper if the poll body purchases the remaining PCOS machines than to acquire new equipment. 

Should the poll body decide to use a new poll automation system, Brillantes said they should be given enough time to educate voters.

“We hope we will be able to decide by January whether to purchase the remaining PCOS machines at a very lower cost or look for new provider,” he said.

Smartmatic won the P7.2-billion contract to supply some 82,000 PCOS machines in the May 2010 presidential elections.

The members of the CAC are: University of the Philippines professor Rommel Feria (academe); George Kintanar of the Chief Information Officers Forum Foundation (CIOFF), Betina Quimson of the Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA), and Rogelio Quevedo of the Philippine Electronics and Telecommunications Federation (PETEF), representing ICT professional organizations.

The two members from non-government electoral reform organizations are lawyer Luie Tito Guia from the Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE) and Henrietta de Villa of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV).

Representatives from the government are Undersecretary Fortunato de la Peña of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Undersecretary Alberto Muyot of the Department of Education, and Casambre as the council’s ex-officio chairman.

Republic Act 9369 or the Poll Automation Law tasks the CAC to recommend to the Comelec “the most appropriate, secure, applicable and cost-effective technology to be applied in the Automation Election System” for the 2013 elections.