Fooling voters with PCOS machines

It’s all over the news, Smartmatic officials explaining to the Senators and those who care to listen that their Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) is fool proof and can’t be tampered by anyone. They did this way back in 2010 but things went terribly wrong! What Smartmatic officials are doing reminds me of what the great American President Abraham Lincoln once quipped, “You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you can never fool all of the people all of the time.”

We’ve written volumes about what happened with the PCOS machines during the May 10, 2010 elections, but our articles were drowned by the cries of victory by those that benefited from the “electronic Dagdag Bawas” that the PCOS machines have given this country. In truth, I would rather have the old “Dagdag Bawas” like in the past where one has to physically grab a ballot box away from people or poll inspectors so they could stuff it with “ready made ballots,” to favor a candidate because it is what we call an isolated type of cheating which was practiced by many political warlords. But didn’t affect the Presidential race. But with the PCOS machines… it is not only a nationwide “Dagdag Bawas” system. Alas, the ordinary folk would never know what happened because the cheating is done digitally.

A week ago, I had a friend who called me, but for his sake, I won’t reveal his name. But he admitted to me that he had a PCOS machine in his home a week before the elections. Honestly, I almost fell down from my chair because I only know of two other PCOS machines that the media caught… one in Antipolo and the other one in Cagayan de Oro, and both were transmitting elections results, but for whose favor… Smartmatic nor the Comelec did not care to investigate. Why didn’t they investigate this?

This friend of mine is an expert on Information Technology and told me in very strong terms that the PCOS machines or any digital machine for that matter if not given a foolproof or tamper proof digital security codes could be used for…helloooow “Electronic Dagdag Bawas.” My friend tells me that the Source Code is an embedded chip inside the ROM of the PCOS machine. To reprogram the machine… one has to know the source code. 

Remember just three days before the May 10th election when the Comelec suddenly disclosed that they had to reprogram the PCOS machine’s source codes? Apparently three days before the May 10 polls, the elections where already over because it was then that the machines were reprogrammed to favor certain candidates. No sir… I didn’t say that this was after someone paid the price for winning but that’s the talk in many coffeehouses.

My friend told me that each of these machines has an access code, where if someone got hold of it… he or she can reprogram the machine “over the air”… meaning even if they don’t get to see or touch the machine at all. This is embedded in the machine’s printed circuit board assembly during the manufacturing process. If is for this reason why I’m scared that if by our using the same PCOS machines (because we can save money) the cheating can be repeated over and over again.

I’m not fooled by Smartmatic’s showing the PCOS machines in public. We’ve been there and done that before. It is easy for the media to listen to Smartmatic… but a few days before elections…or right when the campaign period would start… the elections are already over thanks to the PCOS machines. Of course the cheaters aren’t stupid, they will definitely make “other candidates” win… but the main objective is to get the majority under the Liberal Party win the elections to make it look credible. This is easily done with the propaganda machinery that the LP used in the last elections, like surveys showing who is leading in the field… and with the PCOS machines validating their survey with a credible win.

Once again I say that if the PCOS machines were really good… why then is DOTC Sec. Manuel “Mar” Roxas contesting the results against Vice-President Jejomar Binay? That’s only on the national level. What about the elections in the town of Compostela in Cebu? Why did the Comelec take 22 months to resolve when supposedly the PCOS machines could have shown who won in the elections? Mind you… the Comelec nor Smartmatic didn’t care to answer all our questions. More so now that they are on the roll.

As for me… I have decided to boycott the 2013 polls if the PCOS machines will be used. Call it a personal crusade… but I believe that the Comelec officials are not interested in giving our electorate free, honest and credible elections, which is why they are ramming the PCOS machines down our throat. Finally as of this writing… none of the Comelec officials have shown to the people their SALNs. Transparency obviously is not in the vocabulary of our Comelec officials, which is why I don’t trust them to give our country honest elections. Get rid of the PCOS now before it is too late!

*      *       *

Email: [email protected] or [email protected]