Why is Comelec in a hot spot?

The latest news from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is that we are using the controversial PCOS machines again for Election 2016. Sanamagan! Quite frankly, I am bothered with the decision made by Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista. What doesn’t he understand about the problems these machines can cause?

Let’s refresh our minds. In 1997, RA 8436 was passed into law, authorizing Comelec to implement an automated system for the May 1998 elections, and in subsequent national and local elections. However, “lack of preparation, time and funding” led to the use of the automated process only in Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi in the 1998 elections. In 2001, Comelec’s failure to launch a public education campaign on the new election process led to the unintended exclusion of an estimated 3 to 6 million voters (Schaffer, 2009).

By 2003, Comelec started to build a centralized computer database of all registered voters, including digital photos, fingerprints, and signatures. “With $18M worth of newly purchased data-capturing machines, the poll body had asked all registered voters to have their registration validated in order to purge the voters’ list of ineligible, fictitious, and double voters” (Schaffer, 2009). However, the scheme of validating the voters’ registrations crashed because the software used in the old voters’ list turned out to be incompatible with that of the new list. Many names disappeared when the two lists were merged. With the May 2004 elections fast approaching and a solution not in view, Comelec hastily instructed their field officers to just use their own records. The use of an automated system in counting the votes was also stopped due to controversies of electoral fraud.

In 2007, RA 9369, amending RA 8436, was passed “to encourage transparency, credibility, fairness, and accuracy of elections.” An automated electoral process on a nationwide scale was first enforced in the 2010 elections, which brought President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III to power. The multinational company, Smartmatic, was chosen to supply the hardware and software for electronic voting. A few weeks before the elections, the memory chips of the vote counting machines were found to be faulty. In fact, former President Joseph Estrada petitioned to postpone the elections and revert to manual polls.

Elections pushed through as scheduled, however, because all technical problems were believed to have been addressed. Four hundred sixty-five vote counting machines were reported to be malfunctioning, while 75,882 machines worked smoothly. Compared to past elections where the winners were known after weeks or months, local winners were determined in a few hours, while half of the national winners were known after a day. Foreign media and world leaders congratulated the Philippines for the success of its first automated elections.

The second nationwide automated elections took place on May 13, 2013. In a report dated February 18, 2013, Automated Election System Watch (AES Watch) wrote that in the 2013 elections, compact-flash or CF cards will still be used to store the software responsible for counting the votes and scans. CF cards, they say, are insecure, as these cards “can be transplanted with new data.” AES Watch also demanded that the automated election system equipment, particularly the source code of the vote counting machines, be reviewed by political parties and other interested groups in order to ensure the credibility of the whole system.

In the aftermath of these two elections, reports came out that PCOS machines were proven defective in 2010 and 2013 elections (e.g., faulty program as manifested in the recalling of the 76,000 CF cards during the final testing and sealing on May 3, 2010, digital lines discovered in 2013, unreliable rewritable CF cards, Dinalupihan case showing tampering of PCOS machines, Sultan Kudarat case, Tuburan, Basilan case, Bro. Eddie Villanueva case, etc.)

Last week, despite the pending cases of Smartmatic in the Supreme Court and accusation of Smartmatic officials – Cesar Flores, Albert Castro Rico and Marlon Garcia of violating RA 9369: Poll Automation Law for allegedly changing the source code of the PCOS during the 2013 elections (a case of election sabotage), Comelec awards the contract to this company to supply 23,000 optical mark readers (OMRs) to be used for the elections in 2016.

The decision to again use the Smartmatic PCOS machines may be a Comelec en banc decision and not Chairman Bautista alone, however, having the best and credible credentials on his sleeve, I wonder how Smartmatic was able to outsmart him. Chairman Bautista was the former Dean of Institute of Law at Far Eastern University. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Legal Management degree and Bachelor of Laws from Ateneo de Manila and a Master of Laws from Harvard Law School. He is a bar topnotcher. He was a member of the Consultative Commission on Charter Change, an independent body formed by former president GMA to propose revisions on the 1987 Philippine Constitution. In 2010, Pres. Benigno Aquino III appointed him as chairman of the Presidential Commission on Good Government.

How untouchable can Smartmatic be? In fact, Chairman Bautista even ordered Commissioner Al Parreno to come up with contingency measures should the Supreme Court favor the three petitions against Smartmatic. He said the worst scenario could be shifting back to manual elections. Yeah right! Confuse us more.

This is so unbecoming of such a highly esteemed man. How can you really ignore these accusations and allow the Smartmatic System to be used for the 2016 Election? Whether it is up to the courts to decide the guilt or not, the suspicion is there. A decent professional person managing this matter will never compromise a major event like the 2016 Election and use a company like Smartmatic suspected of electoral sabotage. Even if the accusations are not legally proven, one must respect the sanctity of the Democratic Election System and Mr. Bautista must realize the Comelec’s duty to defend and protect the citizens’ right to vote. That is what matters the most. If the election is delayed so be it as long we bring back the integrity of honest and fair elections with the proper and working system in place.

I believe the Comelec is being entrusted by the Filipino people of their confidence with the duty to safeguard the sanctity of their ballot, aims to provide excellence in service, be fair and impartial in the exercise of its powers, so that posterity, progress and good governance thereby be attained through a continuing development of free, orderly, honest, peaceful and credible elections.

I also believe that the Comelec is independent of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial Branches of the Government.  The Comelec is the premier guardian of the ballot. The Comelec’s role is to enforce and administer all laws and regulations relative to the conduct of elections. The Comelec is the protector of the people’s right of suffrage; responsible of ensuring the sanctity of elections.

With all these things happening, how can we ever attain national stability and achieve democracy?