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The House of Representatives will hold an all-party
caucus during the resumption of its session on Monday, January 28,
to acquaint its members with the procedures and the new rules on the
electronic voting system that was installed in the plenary hall of
the Batasan Complex in Quezon City.
The P15-million electronic voting
system project has been adopted by the Lower House also to address
the chronic problem of absenteeism among its members.
House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr.
said the rules of the House have to be amended to include the
mechanics on how to use the newly installed system.
De Venecia said once the amended
rules are approved in plenary, the electronic voting will be fully
operational by the first week of February.
“Beginning the first week of
February, we will be among the leading parliaments in Asia using
electronic voting, just like the parliaments of the European Union
and the U.S. Congress,” de Venecia said.
According to de Venecia, the
House electronic voting system will also put psychological pressure
on the Commission on Elections to implement before the 2010 national
elections the full computerization of the Philippine elections, to
ensure its integrity.
The plenary hall’s floor was
raised six inches and covered with 50x50-centimeter concrete tiles
with metal supports. Underneath it runs a network of electrical
wires and communication cables necessary for the operation of the
system’s software.
Each member will be provided with
a fingerprint-activated biometric electronic voting gadget, to be
used in the voting and roll call. Each vote will be tallied and
shown in four giant LCD television screens in the plenary, where the
yes vote will be color-coded green, the no in red, and abstain votes
in dark gray.
“This will make voting easy,
fast and reliable and provide members and media an instant
result,” de Venecia said.
Additional tests on the software
and gadgets will be completed today mobilizing over 100 secretariat
employees to simulate plenary roll call and voting.
The House leadership earlier said
the P15 million spent for the system did not come from budget of the
House but from Malacañang’s E-government fund which is intended
for the computerization and modernization of the systems of
government agencies.
--Maricel V. Cruz
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