Comelec, Smartmatic repeating 2010 trickery in Election 2013

This Cezar Mancao affair would make good material for absurdist literature.

The ex-police colonel abruptly had exited the Witness Protection Program (WPP). Announcing it, authorities said he had “escaped.” What, from being a witness?

And so they revoked his protection. But didn’t he quit the WPP precisely because he felt unprotected from assassins out to silence him about the Dacer-Corbito kidnapping-murder?

The National Bureau of Investigation is searching everywhere for him. Meanwhile, he pops up about thrice a day for phone-patch radio-TV interviews. He even held a full-packed press conference.

Mancao begs clemency for his two jail guards at NBI headquarters, for they had nothing to do with his breakout. He showed the press-con how easily he had opened the cell door after earlier switching the padlock with his own. So, the guards are to be pitied, not punished, for being outwitted by their detainee?

The Court of Appeals had ruled that due to his inconsistencies, Mancao couldn’t be a state witness in Dacer-Corbito. The trial court then reverted him to principal accused. Yet three other implicated colleagues are free: the first sitting in the Senate, the second reinstated to the police service, the third heading the security for a big casino.

Mancao says the WPP reeks with corruption, a fact well known for decades. Admin leaders took offense, saying the agency is now lily white. Maybe they’re supermen to have cleaned it up in only three years, with no one jailed, fired, or demoted. If so, then they magically also can create jobs for the four million unemployed, right?

And oh, best proof of the WPP stink is that Mancao lavishly was being feted as protected witness, while under lock and key as principal petitioning the court to be made a witness in the heinous crime. The admin leaders add that Mancao’s “escape” could be a political publicity stunt, since they’ve found out only now what has been in the news for weeks: that their erstwhile witness-detainee is running for provincial board member of Compostela Valley.

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This item I ran on Election Day, May 10, 2010, remains relevant today:

It can never be too late to ascertain the true ownership of automation supplier Smartmatic. This has bearing on the accuracy and acceptability of the election results.

Allegedly Smartmatic Corp., parent of Smartmatic International Corp. that is automating RP polls, is linked to America’s foe, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. Smartmatic is registered in Florida and Barbados, but owned by Venezuelans said to be Chavez fronts and friends. The Barbados records have vanished, but eight subsidiaries are now listed in Venezuela. Smartmatic Holdings Inc. was put up in The Netherlands to make it look European, but wholly owned by a Venezuelan firm with unnamed founders. In 2004 Smartmatic Corp. bought Sequoia, America’s second biggest automation firm and licensee of the Canadian maker of the SAES-1800 precinct count optical scanner to be used in today’s balloting. US authorities promptly investigated the Chavez connection. Whereupon, Smartmatic withdrew the acquisition to effectively end the probe of its ownership, Nicolas-Lewis said. Smartmatic partnered with local firm Total Information Management to bid an incredibly low P7.2 billion for the Comelec’s P11.2-billion automation.

Smartmatic was involved in the Muslim Autonomous Region’s 2008 election. At that time its local partner was Strategic Alliance Holdings Inc. to supply touch-screen voting machines. In SEC records Smartmatic-SAHI’s incorporators included Filipinos Juan C. Villa Jr., Cezar T. Quiambao, Saviniano M. Perez Jr., Jorge M. Yulo, and Miguel Antonio M. Villa, and Spanish Alberto Castro.

Also SEC-registered is Smartmatic Philippines. Incorporators are the Dutch Smartmatic Holdings, Spanish Alberto Castro, Venezuelans Cesar Flores and Ruliena Pineta, and Filipinos Ruby Rose Yusi and Aison Benedict Velasco.

Smartmatic-TIM lists among its incorporators Filipinos Juan C. Villa Jr., Nilo S. Cruz, Lamberto F.L. Lorenzo and Edgardo W. Valenzuela, and Spanish Alberto Castro. They are also among the directors, along with Filipinos Ruby Rose J. Yusi as corporate secretary, Pablo de Borja as assistant, and Venezuelan Ruliena Pinate as treasurer.

Recently Smartmatic-TIM changed its name to 1920 Business Inc. Incorporators are Filipinos Juan C. Villa Jr., Nilo S. Cruz, Lamberto Lorenzo, Edgardo W. Valenzuela, and Aison Benedict Velasco.

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Still relevant too are excerpts from my column of May 7, 2010:

The rule in democratic elections is: secret balloting, public counting. Automation must boost, not mar, it. Secret balloting is guarding the voter’s personal choice; electronics should not conceal the poll process itself. Public counting is open tallying of votes; computers should quicken it without sacrificing accuracy.

The point seems lost on the Comelec. It keeps resisting proposals for a parallel manual count (PMC) of selected positions. Over-simplifying, it prattles that Filipinos are sick and tired of the old, slow manual count and so must go pure automated. The poll body forgets what the old problem was. It wasn’t with manual precinct tallies watched by voters, but with provincial and city canvasses where large-scale dagdag-bawas (padding-shaving) occurred.

After the precinct count optical scanners snafued in last Monday’s test runs, all the more a PMC is needed on May 10, Election Day. It is the only way for the results -- and Comelec -- to be credible and acceptable...

Doubts dominate the electorate’s mood. A PMC would erase worries about the electronic tally. Taking only three hours at P1,000 overtime pay for teachers-precinct inspectors, it would entail counting only the votes for President, VP and mayor. Should there be less than one-percent difference between the PCOS and manual tallies, the inspectors may then transmit the results to the canvassers. But should the variance exceed one percent, then the inspectors must manually count the votes for all positions.

Last Monday’s hitches were but the latest reasons for a PMC. Earlier discarding by Comelec and Smartmatic of election security features gave rise to the idea. For starters, Smartmatic disabled the PCOS on-screen vote verifier, taking away the voter’s only check if the machine is reading his choices right. There was no comprehensive testing of transmission utilities, so it’s unknown if countless precincts can correctly beam tallies for canvass. Smartmatic also switched off the PCOS reader of secret ultraviolet ballot marks. Comelec’s shift to hand-held U/V lamps constitutes a risky human intervention in the automated process; genuine ballots may be declared fake to disenfranchise known voters for the other side. Worst, Comelec did not let parties and info-tech experts to thoroughly review the PCOS source code. Not only was the poll body late in opening the review period that usually takes four months, but also imposed discouraging restrictions. Similarly delayed was the Comelec’s release of the source code test by an internationally recognized certification outfit.

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