Success! Smartmatic-TIM conducts successful field testing, disproving concerns over automated election failure once again.
Despite all the doubts raised against the country’s first ever real attempt at automating its electoral process, Smartmatic-TIM is showing that it is following through on its commitment to the Commission of Elections and the Filipino people to deliver a reliable poll automation system.
At the Oversight Committee Hearing today, Smartmatic-TIM and Comelec faced a new round of grilling from congressmen who registered their doubts and concerns over the implementation of poll automation.
Paranaque Congressman Roilo Golez was among those who questioned the Comelec’s preparation of a contingency plan for a 30 percent failure scenario. Comelec Legal Department Head Ferdinand Rafanan explained that this was just a contingency plan and was in no way an indication that elections would fail in 30 percent of the country’s precincts.
Nevertheless, even as the hearing went on, Smartmatic-TIM went through with its field testing and proved without a doubt that poll automation would work.
Noynoy Aquino and Kris Aquino are expected to be among the more prominent movers in leading the country to commemorate the 77th birth anniversary of Corazon Cojuanco Aquino today January 25.
Among the key highlights may be the unveiling of a new monument of Cory Aquino, a memorial shrine dedicated to the beloved former President who was installed by the EDSA 1986 People Power revolution.
The sculpture was designed and created by Eduardo Castrillo. The sculptor actually made the country’s first statue of Aquino’s husband, Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. in Concepcion, Tarlac, as well as another Ninoy statue at the People Power monument on EDSA (Epifanio delos Santos Avenue).
Malayang Halalan joins the nation in celebrating the birth of Cory Aquino, who can also be credited for supporting the country’s long journey towards modernizing the country’s election process. Aquino was actually cheated in the 1985 snap elections which led to a walk out of Comelec computer programmers during the computerized canvassing of votes.
Vox populi, vox dei… And the shepherds of the Catholic flock are wondering whether the voices of their sheep will come with a thunderous roar or a squeak come May 2010.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) aired concern over delays in the implementation of the country’s first poll automation, worries which were called “apocalyptic predictions” of a failure of elections by the Commission of Elections.
The continuous stream of poll automation machines deliveries since December have been met in step by the repeated bleating over supposed delays. Over the weekend, Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said that all 82,200 Smartmatic-TIM Precinct Count Optical Scan machines which will be used in the 2010 elections will be delivered by February 14 — in time for the Chinese New Year Celebration in Manila. If this happens, Smartmatic-TIM would infact have delivered all PCOS machines ahead of the February 21 deadline for PCOS deliveries in its revised memorandum with Comelec.
Instead of fostering confidence and calm, voices such as that of the CBCP and even of that of Vice Presidential candidate Mar Roxas, have broken out over the din of campaign season noise to raise alarm over what they see as the delayed poll automation implementation.
We have always hoped for a modernized, better, and faster form of voting and counting, imbued with transparency and integrity. Automated election has been in use for some time in many countries. For the first time in our history we are adopting one example of poll automation called Automated Election System (AES). But at this late hour there are still many questions regarding the AES that revolve around the readiness of personnel and equipment as well as the readiness of the electorate in the use of the system. Even more important, many serious questions about the reliability and integrity of the equipment and the personnel involved have not been satisfactorily answered. To be sure those who are responsible for the AES are striving to make the system work.
But we must make sure that there are prepared fall back positions that can be quickly adopted when there are some glitches in the system and in the logistics. We have to be vigilant and be involved. One example would be to help in educating voters regarding the AES and in using the equipment.
Bishop Odchimar’s pastoral letter perhaps may have been influenced by the fact that two bishops of the CBCP are part of a group called AESWATCH. Bishop Broderick Padillo of the CBCP’s National Secretariat for Social Action and Bishop Deogracias Yniguez of the CBCP’s Commission on Public Affairs are among those who comprise AES (Automated Election System) Watch.
The AES Watch which also includes the Center for People Empowerment in Governance — a group which closely related to the Concerned Citizen’s Movement which filed a case against case against Smartmatic-TIM at the Supreme Court, that actually stalled the implementation of poll automation.
Vice presidential candidate Mar Roxas aired his own views on poll automation, indulging in the theory that delays in poll automation could be deliberately due to a ploy to scuttle the May 2010 elections.
Here’s a screen cap of part of Mar Roxas statement regarding poll automation delays:
Mar Roxas says that he thinks poll automation delay could be deliberate effort to scuttle elections in 2010 and keep President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in power.
A transcript of Roxas statement in his interview with ABS-CBN last week has this to day:
“Nakikita natin na mabagal na mabagal, behind schedule ang Comelec sa kanilang preparasyon. Hanggang ngayon, kahit isang balota hindi pa napri-print.”
For his part, Presidential candidate Senator Richard Gordon remarked that the delay of poll automation in the Philippines is old news.
“Poll automation has been promised by every President since Marcos and it was actually during Cory Aquino’s time that the promise to computerize our electoral process was reiterated. In that sense, it has been delayed for over 20 years and it didn’t help that when we were making RA 9369 or the amended automated election law, Senator Roxas was one of those who repeatedly stalled the deliberations and now he thinks he has the wherewithal to talk about poll automation delays? Instead of raising all sorts of bogeys and spectres against poll automation, we should ask our people to be more patient and support the poll automation process.”
In any case, the Comelec has countered both assertions from the CBCP and Mar Roxas:
Commission on Elections Chair Jose Melo slammed various “contingency” measures proposed or discussed in Congress to address a potential power vacuum if the automated polling in May failed.
“The scenario of no proclamation, the nationwide failure of elections—these are just apocalyptic predictions. These apprehensions are not helping. We should all calm down and soon, we will see that our objectives will be attained,” Melo told reporters.
He said such scenarios only contributed to the people’s anxiety, adding that legislators should instead help in voters’ education and support the Comelec in addressing problems.
“We’re comfortable with the preparations that we have. The pace of the preparations is going quite well. We have invested a lot here so I wish we would all support it,” Melo said.
Poll automation, as been explained in a number of previous articles on line, is actually one system built on top of the other. The poll automation system is comprised of paper ballots and a counting system, both with multiple safeguards against failure and tampering.
In the event that the poll automation system fails (and it will take a massive act of God to do this), the Comelec can still count the ballot that will be filled up during the elections.
To answer Roxas concern over the printing of ballots, Comelec EID Director James Jimenez has said:
The Jan. 25 start of the printing was rescheduled to Jan. 30 to accommodate last-minute changes in the final list of candidates stemming from disqualification cases decided by the Comelec and appealed to the Supreme Court.
“A lot of things can happen in five days,” Jimenez said.
Jimenez, however, said the Comelec would start printing on Monday the sample ballots to be used in voters’ education and in the training of public school teachers who will act as election inspectors.
The sample ballots will not have security markings like the real ballots and would not contain names of any official candidate.
On Monday, he said, the Comelec would finalize the length of the official ballot.
The Comelec has to print some 1,700 unique sets of ballots to reflect the national candidates and the local aspirants specific to each province, city, municipality and congressional district.
All 82,200 Smartmatic-TIM PCOS Machines will be delivered by February 14, according to Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento
All election equipment, all in by February 14.
In the face of criticism regarding the delays in the delivery and roll out of poll automation, Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento sees some reason to celebrate the coming of the Year of the Tiger on February 14 and that is the completion of Smartmatic-TIM’s delivery of PCOS election equipment.
Sarmiento was quoted as saying that the completion of the delivery of all 82,200 PCOS machines which will be used on the May 10, 2010 elections will be completed as the country celebrates the Chinese New year with the rest of Asia.
The Comelec Commissioner said that 32,000 PCOS machines are already here in the country and stored at a warehouse in Cabuyao, Laguna.
“32,000 (PCOS) are already here. The remaining 50,000 balance are already in the shipping lines ready for shipment to the Philippines,” said Sarmiento.
Based on the original schedule, Smartmatic-TIM Corporation was supposed to deliver 42,000 PCOS last December while the other 40,000 should come by February.
But the Comelec cited the heavy sea traffic during the holiday season as the reason Smartmatic-TIM failed to meet the original number of machines expected.
With the attack on the TESDA website, Malacanang through deputy Presidential Spokesman Gary Olivar has asked Comelec and Smartmatic to step up online security measures for the May 2010 poll automation.
In an interview quoted by Gmanews.tv when asked for a reaction to the defacement of the TESDA website:
“Of course we are concerned. This is not just a problem in our country, this is not just something that has happened just recently, it’s happening all over the country so this is certainly something that we are sensitive to as a matter of information policy within government,” said deputy presidential spokesman Gary Olivar at a press conference last week.”
However, this seems to be an over reaction considering that Smartmatic-TIM’s automated polling system is protected by multiple layers of security from the point of data entry to data transmission. The protocols for casting votes as well as the transmission of 128 bit encoded data from 82,000 precincts virtually make it impossible to tamper with the transmission of election results.
Several websites will be put up to display election results in 2010, so if one goes down the others will come online.
Before Tesda’s, hackers had also victimized the Web sites of the Department of Health (DOH), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC), and Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
