‘Mock polls successful’

MANILA, Philippines - The mock elections held yesterday to test the country’s readiness for the real one in May ended successfully despite “glitches” which officials said they promptly addressed.

Technical glitches in precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines marred the process at two major voting centers in Metro Manila.

Despite this, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Sixto Brillantes said the mock polls went on “smoothly” at other voting centers.

“We have some initial minor problems but everything has settled down now. (Based on) our reports from the provinces, it’s still OK. We have not received any adverse report so far,” he said in a press briefing at the P. Bernardo High School in Barangay Crame, Quezon City, one of 11 voting centers chosen for the mock polls.

He said the PCOS machine at the University of the Philippines Integrated School in Diliman – the first voting center that he visited – rejected some ballots. But based on reports from the field, the problem was an “isolated” one. A technical glitch also delayed the initialization of the PCOS machine at P. Bernardo High School.

For the mock polls, which began at 8 a.m. yesterday, the Comelec tapped a total of 1,639 actual voters from 11 voting centers, including the 800 and 700 voters registered at UPIS and P. Bernardo High School, respectively. Only 50 voters were taken from each of the nine other voting centers across the country.

At UPIS, the PCOS machine repeatedly rejected the ballots of the first four voters, prompting the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) to replace the machine. The BEI also had a problem keying in the pin code, thus delaying the machine’s initialization. Election personnel encountered the same problem at P. Bernardo.

A PCOS machine had to be initialized to make sure that it was empty of unnecessary data. The BEI also check the keypads to make sure they were working.

Brillantes surmised the glitches occurred because the PCOS machines had been “inactive” for almost three years.

“Maybe they just have to be warmed up more. It’s the first time that we are using them again. But we already have plans if things like this (happen) and the contingency being to replace the PCOS machine with another,” he said.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said he observed that the rejected ballots were crumpled on the edges and this might be the reason the machine’s roller rejected them.

“We are studying the extent of the problems on the machine. But we think at this point that it affects that individual machine only. We have to check the tolerance of the roller,” he added.

No cause for alarm

Jimenez said the glitches gave the poll body an opportunity to perfect the system.

“The mock elections, apart from showing the people exactly what’s going to happen, is also an opportunity for us to shake down the system some more,” he said.

He said the objective of holding mock polls is precisely to determine what needs to be corrected.

“When you are in a laboratory, for instance, the facility is clean. But outside of that, you will have other elements like dust, heat and people jostling around and moving the machines around. So through mock elections, you will see what will probably happen when the machines are in the field on election day,” he said.

As part of the mock polls, the ballots would be counted and then transmitted to the National Board of Canvassers and central server set up by the Comelec at its warehouse in Cabuyao, Laguna.

Jimenez said there are more than 81,000 PCOS machines for 76,000 polling centers, or enough spare units in case problems occur.

Eric Alvia, secretary-general of the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), said, “There were also problems with the machines’ thermal paper and roller while some clips were missing.”

“I spoke with the principal. And she mentioned that when the kit was sent to them, they had to assemble it. There were no technical personnel from the vendor. They were not here. The technician arrived at 7:15 a.m.,” Alvia said, referring to technical personnel from Smartmatic International Corp., which supplied the PCOS machines.

Namfrel also observed that names on the voter’s list posted outside the polling precincts were different from those on BEI list.

“Anyway, we still have around two weeks to go before Comelec releases the certified voter’s lists.  We are waiting for that and then Namfrel can help authenticate and validate if the list that the Comelec national (office) produces is one and the same as what local Comelec has. It’s an area where fraud could occur,” Alvia added.

The Comelec’s holding of mock elections yesterday drew praises from some members of the House of Representatives.

Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone, one of the spokesmen for the ruling Liberal Party, said simulating the May 13 vote would result in fewer hitches on the day of the election.

“Aside from testing the system for flaws, this is a confidence-building exercise. It will assure our people that there will be as few problems as possible. But the more important thing is that it will enable voters to trust the precinct count optical scan machines to be used in May,” he said.

Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said he has no doubt that the PCOS machines would perform efficiently on May 13.

He said before the May 2010 presidential elections, he could not believe that the automated voting machines and their software could be accurate and could not be tampered with.

“But now I am a convert, I am a believer. As a member of the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET), I have personal experience with the accuracy of the PCOS. These machines greatly expedited our job of deciding electoral protests,” he said.

He said that in most cases, the PCOS tally matched with the ballots in the ballot boxes.

He added that in one case where HRET members suspected that the ballots might have been tampered with, they just retrieved the images of the ballots captured by the PCOS machines.   

‘Hocus PCOS’

For former President Joseph Estrada, the technical glitches in yesterday’s mock elections showed that PCOS machines were vulnerable to manipulation.

“That’s what I’m saying, the PCOS machine was turned into ‘hocus PCOS,’” he told The STAR over the phone, an apparent wordplay on hocus-pocus.

“Unlike in manual voting, you have nothing to present once you protest. One kind of cheating there is that, supposing there are 200 voters and only 70 percent or 140 voters turned out in the polling precincts and cast their votes. What will happen to the remaining 60 ballots for the 60 voters? The cheaters could easily fill them out in their favor,” Estrada said.

He said he had called the Comelec’s attention to the problem during the 2010 presidential elections during which he ran but lost to then senator Benigno Aquino III. He is running for Manila mayor in the coming midterm elections.

“The cheaters would only have to pay the Comelec personnel, a representative from a Parish Pastoral for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) and a watcher of the candidate. You cannot do anything about. The fight is over,” Estrada said.

“I am afraid of the unused ballot being used in the ‘hocus PCOS.’ That is what the people should be vigilant about. That is the danger there of having ‘hocus PCOS’ that is prone to vote shaving and padding,” Estrada said.

He said the Comelec might as well return to manual voting in the 2016 presidential elections.

“We can no longer do anything about it right now because the May elections are already very near. There is no way that we can return to manual voting anymore. I don’t really have any idea how to effectively safeguard the PCOS machines. An IT expert can also easily program the PCOS machine into a ‘hocus PCOS’ in favor of one cheating candidate,” Estrada said.

Meanwhile, an official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said he has received reports that certain tech-savvy individuals are offering their services to local candidates for P20 million to P70 million to manipulate poll results in the candidates’ favor.

“I told them that I have been hearing about such incidents. The problem is that it is difficult to verify, if I expose it, it will be denied. We do not have proof because these agreements do not have documents, these are only done by word of mouth so it is easy to deny,” CBCP national secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace (Nassa) chairman Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo said.

He said in past elections, money was used for vote-buying. In the coming elections, politicians are likely to offer millions of pesos to individuals skilled in tampering with election results through technology.

Comelec’s Jimenez said they are willing to investigate Pabillo’s revelations.

“We are open to investigating these things but give us a little more (evidence),” Jimenez said.

“We are very thankful with information like this, but we are doubly thankful if information like this is actionable. Actionable, meaning, we at least have an idea as to who to talk to, etc. If we are given such information, even in confidence, you can be sure that we will go after them,” he said.  - With Jose Rodel Clapano, Evelyn Macairan, Jess Diaz