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By William B. Depasupil, Reporter
THE Department of Budget and Management has
given the go signal to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to
start its preparations for the full automation of the coming
elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
The Comelec spokesman, Director James Jimenez,
disclosed Thursday that the Budget department has already issued a
special allocation release order in the amount of P867.329 million
to fund the automation of the ARMM polls on August 11, 2008.
“This means we can initiate the bidding
process,” Jimenez explained, adding that the bid documents were
made available to prospective bidders on Thursday, Valentine’s
Day.
The Comelec en banc had earlier issued
Resolution No. 8415, ordering the full automation of the ARMM
elections based on two different kinds of technology—the Direct
Recording Electronic (DRE) technology in the province of Maguindanao
and Optical Mark Reader (OMR) technology for the rest of the region.
DRE allows voting through a touch-screen or
touch-pad, while OMR requires voters to fill up a paper ballot that
is then counted with a specially-designed machine.
“The use of different kinds of automated
election systems will allow the Comelec to evaluate the suitability
of the two different technologies in the Philippine setting,
preparatory to designing an Automated Election System for nationwide
use in 2010,” Jimenez said. “This set-up closely adheres to the
recommendation of the Advisory Council.”
The only difference, according to Jimenez, was
in the scope of the use of DRE. “The Council’s recommendation
called for the use of DRE-based automated election system in only
two cities or municipalities in the ARMM.”
The Comelec resolution, however, cited concerns
regarding the small scope. “Among other things, it was pointed out
that if the implementation area is too small, there won’t be
enough basis to say whether a DRE-based automated elections will
work nationwide,” Jimenez clarified.
Other reasons cited by the resolution included
the concern that the small scope of the project would discourage
technology proponents from bidding for it, and that the results
would not be enough to make a comparison between OMR and DRE
technology.
The resolution expanded the scope of DRE use to
include the entire province of Maguindanao, citing the province’s
level of development, as well as the contiguous nature of its
geography.
“The en banc determined that, comparatively
speaking, the province of Maguindanao is the most viable
implementation area for DRE-based automated elections,” Jimenez
said.
The Advisory Council is the body of expert
advisers created by Republic Act 9369 that is tasked to recommend to
the Comelec the proper technology to use for the automation of
elections.
Its members include the Chairman of the
Commission on Information and Communications Technology,
representatives from the Department of Science and Technology and
the Department of Education, a representative from academe,
representatives from IT professional organizations and from
nongovernmental electoral reform organizations.
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