The most important issue

The most important issue in the Philippines today is not about partisan politics. It is also not about how ably the new government has discharged its duties in the last 100 days. The “100-day performance of the present government” has occupied print and broadcast media. Neither is it about blaming the old government for its faults and showing the world that “things will now change” with a new government.

All these pale in comparison to the one issue that this column believes should preoccupy every Filipino voter. The most important issue in the country today is to find out just what happened in the first automated elections in the Philippines last May 10.

This most important issue has not been getting the attention it deserves because powerful forces have stonewalled it. This will destroy our country without even dropping a bomb. It has to put as bluntly as possible — so there will be no fudging, no doubts or procrastination on the dangers that threaten the Filipino nation.

* * *

Happily, there are Filipinos willing to tackle the issue of “the manipulation of automated elections”. They reject suggestions that the elections are over and therefore we have to forget it and move on. They continue putting together accounts of fraud and guarding evidences to support the conclusion that all was not well in the last election.

Since July various groups have been quietly organizing to confront the issue. One group fired their first salvo at the Comelec to allow a people’s audit. Since there have been too many cases and complaints all over the country on the automated voting system that was used, they seek to compel the electoral body to open the “photo images of all the ballots cast during the recent elections.”

They contend that only by comparing the photo information with the proclaimed electronic results nationwide can we know the integrity of the automated electronic system used last May 10. The various people’s organizations that have since joined the call for disclosure are the Filipino Migrant Workers Group (FMW), Global Filipino Nation (GFN), Global Filipinos Australia, Global Filipinos Canada, Our Barangay, Inc., Partidong Pandaigdigang Pilipino (PPP Central), Philippine American Press Club - Northern California, Lawyers for Transparency (L4T), and We Citizen Advocates for Reforms Movement (We Care), Inc., under the umbrella of the Protect our Democracy Movement (PODM).

Those who want to join the action and with access to the internet can file their own request for disclosure of ballot images with the Comelec. A form letter is available at the following links: http://repormakonstitusyonal.blogspot. com/2010/09/request-for-disclosure-of-ballot-images.html and http://www.deszr.com/download/ideszr.request_for_disclosure_ of_ballot_images.03_09_2010.pdf

* * *

Last Wednesday, October 5, the Club Filipino Kalayaan Hall was full to the rafters of those who came to a summit organized by the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG).

In the crowd were IT groups, election watchdogs and good governance advocates. Former Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr. was among those who joined the Club Filipino event.

They asked Comelec to release all vital documents in connection with the May 10 automated polls. “The documents, they said, should be the basis for an independent assessment of the automated polls which Comelec touted as “a rousing success” but which CenPEG evaluated as riddled with widespread technical inaccuracies in its study presented.”

CenPEG also said it cannot understand why the Comelec has refused “to divulge the documents”. That will only increase public suspicions that the poll body is hiding the truth. There are about 100 election protests — many alleging electronic fraud — that have been filed with Comelec according to the non-partisan group.

“The release of the documents is mandated by the Constitution with respect to people’s right to know and access to public information,” they said.

Groups affiliated with the AES Watch led by CenPEG are the UP Alumni Association (UPAA), Nassa, Concerned Citizens Movement, Transparency International-Philippines, DLSU caucus, PCS Foundation, AMRSP, Transparent Elections.org, Movement for Good Governance, among others.

“CenPEG’s repeated formal requests after the May 10 polls for the disclosure of the election documents were denied without any explanation by Comelec en banc last July 26. The documents included the AES source codes, Comelec-Smartmatic contract and all annexes, report of PCOS transmissions on May 10 and thereafter, and inventory of compact flash (CF) cards used for the final testing and sealing (FTS) as well as re-configured CF cards.”

Although the Supreme Court granted CenPEG’s petition for mandamus for the release of the election source code for its independent review, as the law provides last September 21, none have been released at the time of going to press of this column.

In its report presented during the Oct. 6 Club Filipino meeting, CenPEG blamed Comelec’s mismanagement of the automated election. There were just too many complaints because of technical problems, voting hitches, transmission failures, and other problems.

“The automated election’s lack of safeguards, security and accuracy features, and verifiability tainted the credibility and reliability of the election results,” the UP-based think tank added. (See www.cenpeg.org and www.eu-cenpeg.com)

CenPEG executive director Evita Jimenez said the poll body should release the documents requested asap. The question is why it has not done so despite the Supreme Court’s order to disclose the source code or the human-readable version of the computer programs used to run the PCOS machines in the past polls.             

“We cannot fully evaluate the success or failure of the May 2010 polls if the Comelec will not cooperate,” she told GMA-7 in an interview.

Jimenez added that her group will be “constrained” to “seek legal remedies” if the poll body will not grant their request. They have also asked from Comelec the public keys used by PCOS computers, network topology diagram and documentation, digital signing protocols, full copy of the contract entered into by the Comelec with Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems, and a complete copy of the report of the Technical Evaluation Committee on the May 2010 polls.

* * *

In his initial assessment of the country’s first ever automated polls, CenPEG’s information technology (IT) consultant Pablo Manalastas said the “main problem” during the past polls was Comelec itself.

“The automated election system promoted a culture of ‘expertism’ and election as a profit-making industry… The constitutional sanctity of the vote was violated because of lack of safeguards, security and accuracy,” Manalastas said in a speech in the post election summit at Club Filipino.

He expressed the sentiment of the public clamor that unless the automated election system is thoroughly reviewed it is possible that the same system will be used in 2013 and 2016 polls. That is the danger.