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By William B. Depasupil, Reporter
By law, the Commission on
Elections (Comelec) can set up an automated election system (AES) to
count votes and canvass the results of national and local polls.
Automated counting was
pilot-tested during the March 1996 election in the Autonomous Region
in Muslim Mindanao. The results were encouraging. The winning
candidates for the regional assemblymen, district level, were
proclaimed 48 hours after the voting precincts closed, and the
winning gubernatorial and vice-gubernatorial bets were proclaimed
within 72 hours.
Following the passage of Republic
Act 8436, the Comelec set its sights on adopting a program to
modernize the 2004 elections. It prepared to conduct biddings for
the three phases of an automation election system or AES. Phase I
involved the upgrading of the voter registration and validation
system; Phase II, automating counting and canvassing; and Phase III,
electronic transmission.
President Arroyo issued Executive
Order 172, which allocated P2.5 billion to fund the AES for the 2004
elections.
The Comelec under Chairman
Benjamin Abalos Sr. was all set to implement the country’s first
ever AES. But on January 13, 2004, or some four months before the
polls, the Supreme Court voided the P1.3-billion contract between
the Comelec and Mega Pacific Consortium (MPC) for the supply of
1,991 automated counting machines or ACMs—for “clear violation
of law and jurisprudence” and “reckless disregard” of
Comelec’s bidding rules and procedure.
In a separate order, the Court
also stopped the Comelec from using the very small aperture
transmission or VSAT, the Phase III component of the AES, which
would have electronically transmitted the votes from the provinces
to the processing centers.
The Comelec had paid P300 million
to Philippine Multimedia System for the VSAT machines that cost
P600,000 each. But like the ACMs, the VSAT machines have never been
deployed.
The ACMs are stored in the
Comelec Maxilite Warehouse on UN Avenue at a storage cost of
P329,255.26 a month or P3.979.460.24 a year.
Stymied by the Supreme Court
order, the Comelec cannot even use the 1,991 automated counting
machines it purchased from MPC or be cited for contempt.
At least two motions for
reconsideration had been filed before the Court to allow the Comelec
to use the ACMs. The Court threw out both petitions.
Abalos said that despite the
setbacks, the Comelec is bent on pursuing electoral modernization in
time for the May 14 elections.
“Automation is not something we
should give up on too easily. Especially in light of the enthusiasm
with which, not just the Comelec but also both houses of Congress
are pursuing this goal,” he said.
The poll body consulted
information technology firms to determine the best technology
to use in automating the electoral process. A proposed bill amending
the country’s election modernization law was also filed to
complement the effort.
But the amendatory bill was
stalled in the bilateral conference committee. With the election
period approaching, the Comelec was left with no choice but to
prepare for another manual election.
Senate Bill 2231, authored by
Sen. Richard Gordon, sought a partial computerized elections next
year. A counterpart measure, House Bill 5352, had earlier been
passed by the House of Representatives.
Had the amendatory bill been
enacted into law, Abalos said, Comelec would have been able to at
least implement the transmission and consolidation or canvassing
components of the automation project in the May elections.
“There is no quarrel that we
could automate the election system. We have all agreed that we could
easily implement the transmission and consolidation aspects,”
Abalos said.
“With it, we would be able to
eliminate mass fraud and mass cheating because it is in the
transmission of election results where there has been hijacking,
substitution of election results, switching and dagdag-bawas,” he
added. “It is not in the counting, it is not in the voting.”
With automated elections for May
14 out of question, voters will once again have to write in the
names of their candidates of choice, the teachers will have to
individually count the ballots and preparing the election returns,
and the board of canvassers must manually prepare the statement of
votes by precincts and prepare the certificate of canvass.
It’s back to the tedious,
flawed system.
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