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Many questions, fears and concerns have been raised
in the last few months over the controversial automation of the May
2010 elections. Experts and non-experts alike are raising doubts
about the integrity of the system, which the Commission on Elections
(Comelec) has adopted, as well as its adherence to the law on
automation passed by Congress.
There are legitimate fears about
the source code for the Precinct Counting Optical Scanners (PCOS), a
tightly guarded secret known only to the foreign company to which
the Comelec awarded the automation contract. That source code, which
is the set of instructions installed in the machine to ensure the
security of the count, canvass and electronic transmission of the
results, must be released to and reviewed by PPCRV, Namfrel, media
quick-count organizations and the political parties soonest, so that
doubts about manipulated results can be allayed.
The haphazard manner by which the
Comelec tested and finally awarded the contract is now becoming
apparent, from a strange failure to do adequate time-and-motion
studies to an awful ratio of two specially designed felt tip pens
per voting precinct, with little consideration for normal election
day lapses and occurrences, among others. The PCOS machines are
susceptible to jamming, not the least reason for which is an
official ballot that is long and narrow, with several hundred names
printed in small font. Even the printing of these official ballots,
with one set of names per municipality, is fraught with security
concerns.
The absence of adequate
safeguards gives rise to credible fears that the proposed automated
counting and canvass would be akin to having thousands of faceless
and voice-less Garcis manipulating the critical elections of 2010.
We, the Former Senior Government
Officials (FSGO), are most certainly for electoral reforms. We are
not averse to the modernization or automation of the canvass of
votes, the area where manipulation of results has in the past been
done with utmost impunity. But in a larger sense, technology must
not, and cannot be allowed to deprive a people of their fundamental
right to genuinely free and honest choices.
The fears raised by several
sectors in the legal and IT communities mirror a general distrust
not only in the Comelec as the guardian of the democratic vote, but
also in the institutions of government that have been so stripped of
credibility by years and years of assault and abuse.
Indeed, under a president that
cannot be trusted, even the validity of supposed electoral reforms
becomes the object of doubt and suspicion. More so when the process
lacks transparency and the implementers lack adequate competence and
possess little credibility.
Because trust is so low on those
who govern our nation, and the selected automated system has not
been adequately tested, our first proposal is to postpone use of
this controversial system until the barangay elections or even the
mid-term elections of 2013, not in the 2010 national election. If
that alternative does not find popular support, the best compromise
seems to be automating only the canvassing of election returns, and
leaving ballots to still be written out by the voter. Such partial
automation continues to allow the public to monitor manual counting
at the precinct level while speeding up canvass of the votes at
succeeding levels, the parts of the election process most
susceptible to cheating and to delays.
There is no overstating the need
to ensure that the 2010 elections must be clean, honest and orderly,
and the results of these should be acceptable to candidates and most
important, to the sovereign electorate. The forthcoming elections
are a watershed in the overwhelming desire to perfect the systems of
democratic order. If there should be chaos on election day, and
anarchy in the canvass of votes, the resulting failure of elections
could be the last straw that would break the camel’s back, and
lead to the complete disintegration of the democracy we all hold
dear.
We pray to the Almighty that this
shall not come to pass, even as we call on our people to be
ever-vigilant, and appeal to the Supreme Court to be the true
guardians of the most sacrosanct foundation of our democracy.
Vicente Paterno
Former Minister
Ministry of Industry
Mobiline 0917-7957974
Karina Constantino-David
Former Chairman
Civil Service Commission
Mobiline 0917-8343733
Angelito Banayo
Former Presidential Adviser
on Political Affairs
Mobiline 0917-7431722 
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