Poll hackers? Remember the 'I love you' virus?

We have asked pertinent questions to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) about the last May 10 elections and to date, no one from the Comelec cared to respond to our queries. Perhaps they are scared to answer my queries in print lest they be caught giving a wrong answer or worse, they might end up lying to our readers.

So call it coincidental that when I was writing this column, my TV set was tuned to channel 23 so I was able to watch the replay of Boy Abunda’s Bottom-Line show, where he apparently used one of my Philippine STAR columns to ask Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal why there were no spoiled ballots in the whole island of Cebu? Larrazabal replied saying “When the machines accept your ballots, it is a valid vote… if the machine doesn’t accept it, it is set aside. But there is no list of spoiled ballots.”

Boy Abunda was clearly referring to my May 19 column wherein we wrote, “Over the weekend, I finally got my copy of the Comelec results in both Cebu City and Cebu Province direct from the Comelec and what do you know, we found something even more startling, that in both the City of Cebu and in Cebu Province, there was not a single spoiled ballot recorded by the Comelec canvass. In short the total number of voters who actually voted tallied exactly to the number of valid ballots counted!” This is just incredibly amazing!

Commissioner Larrazabal apparently gave the wrong answer because he admitted that there were indeed spoiled ballots but they did not make a list of these spoiled ballots. But what we’re complaining about is that the total number of voters totally matched with the valid votes… therefore it is crystal clear that there were no spoiled ballots… otherwise the total number of voters would not have matched with the valid ballots. Fortunately for Mr. Larrazabal, Boy Abunda was too kind and didn’t press on with the question, otherwise, Commissioner Larrazabal would have looked like a red-faced donkey! 

There is no doubt in my mind that the May 10 polls was wracked with so many inaccuracies that even today, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) simply ignores the questions we raised, questions that are legitimate, which could give some kind of logic to the illogical results of the May 10 polls. Again, let me point out that we were one of the firsts to congratulate the Comelec for the quickest count for the first 48 hours. But all this blinding speed came into a screeching halt when three weeks later, we still didn’t know who won the Vice-Presidential derby?    

So before you dismiss our articles especially about the Electronic Garci as helping out the sore losers in this election, allow me to remind you that last May 4 was the 10th anniversary of that infamous email virus dubbed the “I LOVE YOU virus”, the biggest malware that struck the international Internet scene. The problem with us Filipinos is that we’re a very forgetful people… we have already forgotten how Filipinos made a big albeit negative name in the Internet community.

Trackers finally found the authors of this Internet worm… Onel de Guzman and Reomel Ramones of the Philippines. Unfortunately, despite the damage that they did to computers all over the world, the two were released after their arrests as they violated no Philippine laws. Sadly, today, we still have no laws against computer hackers. This is why I’m writing this piece to remind everyone that we do not need foreign hackers to cheat the elections using the PCOS machines, we have enough warm Pinoy hackers who can manipulate the polls for a humungous amount of money! 

How I wish that the automated polls was close to perfect so we could finally move on to the future of trouble-free elections. But as it is, I’m all for scrapping automated polls and for the Comelec to look for something better than a manual counting, but not necessarily going full automation.

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Last May 5 I flew to Manila for a meeting, but when I got off the plane the meeting was abruptly cancelled, hence I called my good friend Angelo Verdan, who was previously the general manager of the Cebu Port Authority (CPA) and is now the administrator of the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) for a surprise visit. When I got into his office at Parkview Plaza along Taft Ave. corner T. M. Kalaw St. Ermita, Manila, I was the one totally surprised that the Marina headquarters was inside a shopping mall!

We have always pointed out that Cebu is where 90 percent of the domestic shipping operations are headquartered, hence I would like to suggest to outgoing President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to have Marina transferred immediately to Cebu at the Malacanang sa Sugbo where it can have an office befitting its stature as the agency in charge of all shipping in this country. If I have to, I will sponsor a resolution in the Regional Development Council (RDC-7) to make this transfer a reality!

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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected] or [email protected]. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.

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