To vote or not to vote – that is the question!

We are 103,477,469 Filipinos and counting. Only half of the populace voted in 2013. Will more people vote in 2016? This is an important decision for Juan De la Cruz. But Juan De la Cruz up to this point in time is waiting for a messiah to appear, hoping against hope that he or she will fall from the heavens to save our motherland from all the demons surrounding us.

First of all, we need better selection of candidates. It seems that we are locked in and just left with a choice of whether to vote or not to vote. Second, we are not sure of Comelec’s credibility. We are not sure that the system the Chairman has chosen will reflect what the people have voted. Third, we have grown numb from ‘dirty’ politics. Government has not protected us from politics. It has become our worst nightmare.

I am not discouraging people from voting. I am a strong believer in everyone’s right to vote. We should all vote. Every citizen must actually be required to vote as he/she is required to pay taxes.

The right to vote is a fundamental democratic right which should be protected by the Comelec. Our vote matters. Our voices must be heard. The more votes, the more powerful our message is as a people. Every vote counts.

But as the people fall in line to register under the new Comelec program called biometrics, we are once again frustrated. To give you a background on this, Comelec came up with a new policy to establish a clean, complete, permanent and updated list of voters through the mandatory registration process called “biometrics” (Comelec Resolution No. 9853).

What exactly is biometrics? When a person applies for registration, his/ her biometrics will be captured digitally. This simply means digital images (or pictures) of his/ her photograph, fingerprints and signature will be taken (or captured) using the Comelec’s Voter Registration Machine (VRM).

The VRM is simply a desktop computer, with a digital camera, fingerprint scanner and signature pad attached to it. Biometrics capture becomes possible with the use of this high-tech equipment, and the Voter Registration System (VRS).

For the 2016 elections, voters have been required to have their biometrics done or they will not be able to vote. Thousands have flocked to the registration places on scheduled dates. Here’s hoping that many will be able to register. By the way, Comelec should check all the registration areas. It took a friend of mine almost five hours just to register because officials were not trained and lacked information on the registration process. Susmariosep!

Will the biometrics in all precincts be fully utilized or is this another waste of time for the voters? Is it another half-baked project? I remember we bought the voters verification system machines for 2013 elections at an even higher price of P800 million but never used it.

Nations are turning to biometric voting systems to help support fair, credible elections and ensure the absence of fraud and illegal practices to protect the voters and the electoral process. It is indeed a noble objective. But what happens when the agency tasked to do the job fails to complete the process for inexplicable reasons?

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Another disappointment is the failure of Comelec to get a good and credible electronic voting system. Now that the cat is out of the bag, I personally feel deceived with Comelec’s move to continue with Smartmatic. I was hoping that the Chairman would first clear this company from the flaws it has done in the past before using it again.

I want the people to know the truth. I want Filipinos to engage themselves and pay some attention to what is happening to our electoral system. Many people easily submit to what they have been made to believe is true and fair. We need to be aware of what can happen to our votes using this system. Our lack of interest and lackadaisical attitude will hurt us in the end so people better be wiser. We should wake up and smell the rot possibly happening behind closed doors.

Ours is a country that has been wrecked with continued deception. When will this stop? I really have no idea. But for now, allow me to give you information that can hopefully change your thinking and help you understand better what an automated election is all about.

In an automated election, there is what you call program scripts. These program scripts, or the program scripts in Smartmatic for that matter, can be directed to do whatever you want the information in the database (voting storage) you want the result to be. Just recently, an election sabotage case was filed by the group of former Comelec Commissioner Augusto Lagman before the Comelec against Smartmatic Asia-Pacific president Cesar Flores and two other Smartmatic officials Albert Castro Rico and Marlon Garcia for violating Republic Act 9369 or the Poll Automation Law in the 2013 elections. The complaint stated that, “Smartmatic officials/personnel inexplicably changed the scripts of the un-reviewed source code at or about the time of the consolidation/canvassing during the said election purportedly to adjust the questionable figures received and announced by the Transparency Server, without notifying the concerned political parties or their representatives as well as other election stakeholders.” This shows that indeed the program scripts can manipulate anything in the database, in this case the election results. Sanamagan!

At this point in time, it is still a big wonder to me how Comelec can continue with such deception. When will this agency entrusted by the government to ensure fair and honest elections show loyalty to the Filipino people? Comelec officials like Commissioner Christian Robert Lim must be told that not all Filipinos are that stupid to believe the press releases about proper review of source code as the legislation states. Did Smartmatic conspire with Comelec to use Systest Lab US company? Wasn’t this company previously connected to Smartmatic in some way? If so, isn’t this a deception to the Filipino people? Why does Comelec want to play with fire? Why is it putting itself in the center of controversy by continuing its alliance with Smartmatic?

Chairman Andres Bautista said, “After exhaustive consultation with stakeholders and with due consideration of the current circumstances, particularly issues relating to cost, timeliness and technical risk, the commission decided to choose the more prudent approach of leasing all new 93,977 (OMR) machines for the 2016 elections.” He added that, “The commission believes that this is the most viable, practical and safest option to pursue in our efforts to ensure the credibility of the 2016 elections.” He also said that leasing new OMR machines would give the poll body sufficient time to run tests on the units or have the units configured to address the problems encountered in the 2010 and 2013 elections.

There are too many flaws in our electoral process which may definitely take away our democratic right to honest and fair elections. There are many possible solutions and/ or alternatives to resolve them. Why is Chairman Bautista so bent on this system when many have questioned it? I hope that with his decision the 2016 elections will not be a farce?