Congress to conduct recount to determine PCOS accuracy

MANILA, Philippines - With the accuracy of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines used by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) still being questioned less than two years before the next national elections, Congress will be conducting a recount of the votes of three precincts to see if the system should be retained.

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, chairman of the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on the Automated Election System, said he would lead his colleagues in the Senate and the House of Representatives in supervising the recount of ballots of three precincts in Gapan, Nueva Ecija on Aug. 28.

The Comelec offered to reopen the ballots in the three precincts in response to allegations from supporters of evangelist Bro. Eddie Villanueva, who ran and lost in the senatorial elections of 2013.

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. gave the oversight committee in its hearing yesterday his side on the claims of supporters of Villanueva, which appeared in the article of The STAR columnist Jarius Bondoc.

Brillantes said he has responded to Bondoc to prove that there were no issues with the results of the voting in those three precincts.

Bernardo Aranas and Arlan Esteban, supporters of Villanueva, filed a civil case in the Gapan regional trial court, not to protest the results of the senatorial election in the province, but to show discrepancies in the count in favor of the religious leader.

Brillantes noted Gapan RTC Judge Celso Baguio ordered a physical count of the ballots in the three precincts, which showed a discrepancy of over 100 votes in one and seven each for the other two.

For the two precincts where discrepancies of seven votes each were recorded, Brillantes said he was sure that the people who counted the ballots included the “over votes” for Villanueva, which should not have been included in the first place.

He explained that over votes consisted of ballots that contained more than 12 votes for senators, which should not be counted and were not counted by the PCOS machines.

For the other precincts where there were over 100 discrepancies recorded, Brillantes said he has not yet seen the records but believes the ballots were tampered.

“I am about to decrypt all this, but we are going to reset this so the public would see. When we decrypt this, my own feeling is that this precinct, where there was over 100 recovery by Villanueva, has been tampered. Physical ballots were tampered. We will see this in the decryption,” Brillantes said.

He pointed out the physical ballots could be tampered, especially since the election took place over a year ago.

“It’s over a year since election, why hasn’t Brother Eddie filed a protest if he believes that he won. We could have opened these. Why is he complaining now and through an RTC judge through a civil case?” Brillantes asked.

“If what they’re claiming is correct – that the physical count made by the judge would prevail over the count of the PCOS – then I will resign as chairman even today,” he added.

A motion to dismiss was filed by the Comelec based on the argument that the RTC in Gapan had no jurisdiction.

Pimentel said the recount of the three precincts in Gapan during the next hearing of the joint oversight committee on Aug. 28 would present a clearer picture to the public on the accuracy of the PCOS machines.

“Once and for all the joint congressional oversight committee on the automated election system will be the one to conduct a recount because we have been hearing a lot of talk that the count of the PCOS machines is inaccurate,” Pimentel said.

“So let us look at this because Bro. Eddie Villanueva was able to open three ballot boxes, which were recounted by the RTC so the congressional committee of the House and the Senate will do the counting so that we would know once and for all just how accurate are the PCOS machines because we are getting conflicting reports,” he added.

For 2015, the Comelec has a proposed budget of P16.8 billion, out of which P3.76 billion would be used to purchase 41,800 PCOS machines based on the briefing paper on the 2015 national budget submitted by the Department of Budget and Management.

The Comelec Advisory Council, led by Louis Napoleon Casambre, has recommended the current system using the PCOS machines be used for the 2016 elections because it would be a more “judicious use of public funds” and the electorate already has experience with the system.

Casambre said though the Comelec should seriously consider the use of multiple or mixed technologies to promote inter-operability and encourage innovative solutions.