Computerization mumbo-jumbo

Everyone in this country agrees that electoral reform is of the utmost necessity, and that computerization of the counting process is the correct antidote to excruciatingly slow and often inconclusive determination of election results.

However, according to Commission on Elections chair Benjamin Abalos Jr., the likelihood is that in 2007, the count will once again be done manually. This is because the Supreme Court, Abalos laments, won’t allow the Comelec to use automated counting equipment it purchased two years ago in that ill-fated deal with the Mega Pacific group.

That contract was declared null and void by the Supreme Court which also ordered Comelec "to refrain from implementing any other contract or agreement entered into with regard to this project."

In that same decision, the Supreme Court, in a rare display of judicial ill temper, also ordered the Ombudsman, under pain of contempt, to finally determine, no later than last June 30th, the criminal liability of any public officials involved in the contract.

On the very last day of that period, the Ombudsman came out with recommendations for the impeachment of Comelec Commissioner Rex Borra and the filing of graft charges against him, five other top officials of Comelec and officers of Mega Pacific. The Ombudsman has said that investigations are continuing into whether other public officials may also be charged.

In the meantime, since 1,991 automated counting machines were actually delivered by Mega Pacific, for which payment of about P1 billion had been made, the machines are at the moment being stored at a Comelec warehouse in Manila. Chair Abalos say they are still in mint condition.

Mega Pacific says it can’t take back the machines. Nor can it refund the money paid it, because the South Korean supplier says the contract has been fully executed. In accordance with the terms of the contract the purchased merchandise has been fully delivered, inspected by the buyer, accepted and paid for. Nothing else to talk about or do, the sellers say. Except, I guess, to file criminal libel suits against anyone who seeks to damage their business standing by claiming any anomaly in the deal.

So the long and the short of it is that we’ve got about a couple of thousand, fully paid automated counting machines gathering dust in a warehouse somewhere which can’t be used. Chair Abalos insists the technology imbedded in those machines, while probably not state of the art, is perfectly usable for purposes of the 2007 elections.

Moreover, it appears that before the Ombudsman, the Department of Science and Technology, which did the certification testing on machines delivered in 2004, insisted that those they tested were 100 percent accurate and that all defects detected had been corrected. Still, whatever the Ombudsman decides on this point will be unavailing in the light of a clear and unambiguous Supreme Court decision voiding the contract.

By way of review, the Supreme Court, in the case of Information Technology Foundation of the Philippines, et al. vs. Comelec, et al., ruled that: "…(T)he Commission on Elections…awarded the subject Contract not only in clear violation of law and jurisprudence, but also in reckless disregard of its own bidding rules and procedures."

Specifically, "…Comelec awarded the Contract to ‘Mega Pacific Consortium’, an entity that had not participated in the bidding. Despite this grant, the poll body signed the actual automation Contract with ‘Mega Pacific eSolutions, Inc.,’ a company that joined the bidding but had not met the eligibility requirements."

The Court also ruled that Comelec "accepted the proferred (sic) computer hardware and software even if, at the time of the award, they had undeniably failed to pass eight critical requirements designed to safeguard the integrity of elections…"

The Court cited three principal shortcomings: First, failure to achieve accuracy rating criteria of 99.9995 percent set by Comelec itself; second, inability to detect previously downloaded results and prevent these from being inputted again; and third, the lack of statutorily required audit trails at different levels of the count without any loss of data.

One fundamental problem facing the Comelec is the concern that any procurement of computerized counting equipment will encounter the kind of endless technical argument, crippling litigation and media frenzy that has attended previous attempts to implement Republic Act No. 8436 which was passed in December 1997 in order to put in place an automated system for the 1998 (!) elections.

It didn’t happen in 1998 (except for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, not counting Sulu Province where a manual count was resorted to because of complaints of poll anomalies), not in 2001, and, of course, not in 2004.

Thus, a very real concern is whether we are really serious about automated elections, or whether there has just been too much "investment" in the present snail’s pace, anomalies-ridden manual system by entrenched traditional politicians (appropriately nicknamed "trapos"). As things now stand, I can’t see how computerized elections will be a reality anytime soon.

Although evidently desperate to use the equipment already here and supposedly "ready to go," the Comelec knows it risks mortal consequences if it went ahead without Supreme Court "approval." However, I think Comelec can forget about that approval. It will happen, as they say, only when hell freezes over.

The proposal that Congress give utmost priority to passing a law that would allow Comelec to use any kind of technology to facilitate the holding of elections, including automated counting equipment and electronic transmission facilities, will probably not get to first base. The obvious purpose of such a law would be to allow the use of the Mega Pacific equipment, and I don’t know who among our legislators, wary of the 2007 polls, would touch that proposition with a ten-foot pole.

One piece of bait Comelec’s dangling is that no new funding would be required if such a law were enacted. The Mega Pacific machines would simply be used. On balance, however, I’m not sure the saving of over P1 billion warrants the firestorm such a step would inevitably cause. But if someone’s got a better way out of this quicksand, I’d like to hear it. Otherwise, it’s manual elections for us in 2007. Calling Garci!

(To be continued)