THE latest news about the Commission on Elections’ problems about the Smartmatic Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines is that the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines can no longer ignore the matter.

The issue involves moral questions, impacts on the honesty of our elections, disturbs the serenity of many Catholic Filipino citizens and could besmirch the name of the Catholic-authorized Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), an authorized citizen arm of the Comelec.

As a result, the CBCP has tabled the issue for discussion in the episcopal conference’s first meeting in 2013.

The report titled “ CBCP to push probe of voting machines” by Jhunnex Napallacan of Inquirer Visayas (PDI Thursday, December 27, 2012) says the current president of the CBCP, Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, “believes the computerized voting machines successfully used in the 2010 elections are flawed and he wants them thoroughly examined before these are used in next year’s midterm elections.”

The report says the CBCP head’s doubts about the PCOS machines “echo those of Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, who has been saying for some time that the voting machines are not perfect.” In interviews with The Manila Times Sen. “Koko” Pimentel also voiced his observations about the flaws he and his men saw in the machines. These flaws allowed him to be cheated.

Sen. Pimentel has been calling on IT experts to continue hunting for flaws and glitches in the automated election system the Comelec has bought along with 82,000 PCOS machines and the software governing their use from Smartmatic International corporation.

The PDI report quoted Archbishop Palma as saying at a news conference he gave on Wednesday, “I, for one, can tell, or I will say I’m not ashamed to tell people that I also believe [the PCOS machine has defects]. It has to be examined and that is part of the agenda of the CBCP [when it meets in January].”

Palma said that in response “to a question about the possibility that the PCOS machines could still be manipulated and used in cheating, like what happened in some parts of the country in 2010.”

May 2013 elections
The Comelec must solve all these problems—and not merely rely on Smartmatic executives in telling the citizenry that they have everything under control in holding fraud-free and glitch-free midterm elections using the PCOS machines less than five months from now, in May 2013.

Comelec hogged the headlines as it laid the groundwork for next year’s election, including the end of the two-year voters’ registration and the filing of certificates of candidacies, which officially marked the start of the election season.

From the blockbuster lines at the end of the registration to the circus-like filing of candidacy, Comelec’s year became busier as it tried to meet the requirements and timeline for next year’s polls.

All these preparations, however, might go for naught if a court in Delaware would rule against Smartmatic, the Comelec’s contractor for the automated election system (AES) supposed to be used in May 2013.

Furthermore, there were doubts raised against the reliability of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines remain unresolved.

PCOS machines purchase
Controversy hounded the Comelec’s purchase of the 82,000 PCOS machines worth P1.8 billion from Smartmatic International last March. Some said Comelec should have merely leased the machines since the technology used would be obsolete in a few years.

Critics also noted that the machines had a lot of unfixed bugs that could imperil the next election. These bugs were allegedly unexplained by Smartmatic, which escalated doubts whether the machines were really capable of reading and counting the votes properly.

The legality of the purchase was also questioned before the Supreme Court by poll watchdogs, particularly by the Automated Election System (AES) Watch headed by former Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr. They argued that the ‘option to purchase’ clause in the Comelec-Smartmatic contract already expired in Dec. 31, 2011 when the Comelec exercised its option.

However, the High Court ruled on June 13,2012 ruled in favor of the purchase of the PCOS machines since it was forged when the initial contract between Comelec and Smartmatic was still valid.

The Supreme Court rejected AES Watch’s motion for reconsideration on October 23, making its June 13 decision final.

Smartmatic-Dominion legal battle
The appeal of poll watchdogs to junk Smartmatic as the AES contractor came while a legal dispute against its licensor, Dominion Voting Systems, loomed in the Delaware Court of Chancery in the United States. It even raised doubts whether the source code used in the 2010 elections was really escrowed with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

Last September, Smartmatic filed a case against Dominion for seven offenses, including “failing to deliver fully functional technology for use in the 2010 Philippine national election”; “failing to provide timely technical support during and after” the 2010 polls; and “failing to place in escrow the required source code, hardware design and manufacturing information.”

The dispute opened the door to a lot of questions, particularly on the authenticity of the source code kept in the BSP vault and even to the results of the 2010 elections.

A source code is any collection of computer instructions specifying the actions to be performed by a computer or a machine whose functioning is controlled by a computer.

Source codes that have flaws are vulnerable to hacking and misuse by unauthorized persons, including those who may wish to alter election results.

Allegations of cheating gained currency as Smartmatic admitted that it did not get hold of the source code, the master software of the PCOS machines that allows it to function properly.

Dominion, in its counterclaim, specified that it was never a party to the Comelec-Smartmatic deal. It further stated that the cancellation of its deal with Smartmatic last May 23 automatically revoked the license for the Philippines’ PCOS machines.

However, Comelec immediately brushed off the ‘doomsday’ scenario, where Dominion would simply claim the machines as the result of the legal dispute. Poll chief Sixto Brillantes Jr. said that it is a problem of the office but not a major one enough to create panic.

He also assured that the source code was put in escrow with BSP in 2010 in accordance with the law. This statement had failed to erase all doubts on the authenticity of the supposed source code put in escrow with the BSP. Some, including Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel 3rd have been repeatedly asking information technology experts to help review the various source codes to be used by the Comelec in the 2013 elections.

Pimentel noted that the Comelec and Smartmatic had refused to allow the examination of the source codes outside Comelec premises.

“Our objective is to bring back the trust of the people in the Comelec and the elections itself. A review of the source codes would allow the detection of glitches, flaws and vulnerabilities in our electronic electoral system,” Pimentel explained in asking Comelec to be “less restrictive” in the review of the source codes.

He stressed that any flaw in the software and the hardware that use them must be detected and corrected “if the 2013 and succeeding elections are to be protected from sabotage or attempts to favor any particular candidate.”

IT experts, including those affiliated with AES Watch, has been urging the Comelec to hold a mock election using the PCOS machines in one barangay, with all entire system’s source code and processes transparently open for all to see and assess.

A so-called mock election was held before the 2010 election but this was, according to the IT experts, more like a demonstration with source code and processes closed to scrutiny.