Is the Philippines Ready for Nationwide Automation of Elections? The Need for Vigilance and Prayer

[Andrea Lizares Si (HS'73,AB '78)]

Is the Philippines Ready for Nationwide Automation of Elections?

Automated elections will go on and we don't want to be as pessimistic about it as Juana Change is in the video that follows. On the other hand, we cannot be too trusting, even if there are reform minded people in COMELEC and in other branches of government. Comelec asks the nation to give automated elections a chance. As if we have a choice. But it is one thing to give Comelec the benefit of the doubt, another thing to find out on election day that the system that we are asked to trust makes possible large scale, undetectable election fraud.


The first video was humorous. This second video "Tech, security issues abound in automation project" is by the Center for Investigative Journalism. Chief among the concerns brought up in the video are security issues now being raised by computer experts, nongovernmental groups, and even members of the Commission on Elections Advisory Council (CAC) that oversaw the protracted, if transparent, bidding process. These unresolved security issues have raised the specter of an automated exercise where the cheating will not just be as fast as the counting, but harder to detect as well.
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Winnie Monsod therefore urges us all to be vigilant to avoid failure of elections. Among the matters she mentions are a backgrounder on Smartmatic and the fraud ridden Venezuelan referendum, the delay in COMELEC's time-table and how even the original time-table meant testing and inspection of 2,740 machines daily, how none of the COMELEC Commissioners have management experience and expertise in Information Technology. Monsod also tells us that 352,000 precincts will be consolidated into 82,000 precincts, resulting in about a thousand voting where only 250 to 300 voted before. Assuming that there is a steady flow of voters and it takes a minute for each voter to be processed by the Board of Election Inspectors and then to insert his ballot into the machine and for the machine to read the ballot, only 60 can vote in an hour and the thousand will finish voting after 16 hours. Unfortunately, voting will only be for eleven hours from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.



Now a computer is only as good as its parts and the code that it is running. Before Microsoft launched Windows 7, the program was tested by thousands of volunteers for a year. Before ATM machines were used nationwide, the machines and the programs used to run the machines were pilot tested in several cities for a year also. For 2010, Smartmatic will be delivering 82,200 made in China machines that will be tested at the rate of 2,700 per day. According to Atty. Ferdinand Rafanan, a member of the Comelec's Special Bids and Awards Committee for the automation bidding, there will be 80,126 consolidated precincts, leaving 2,200 machines available to replace those that fail to function or that break down on election day. How will the 1,874 other units be distributed? According to Atty. Rafanan, one per municipality and city. As of December, 2008, there were 1,514 municipalities and 120 cities (meaning 1,634 machines at one each) and the remaining 240 would be divided among the largest cities. Imagine Negros Occidental with 2,330 consolidated precincts (from the original count of 7,616) having only 31 spare machines for the whole province. What are the odds of made in China electronics failing to work or some wires burning as did the one Smartmatic used for its demo?

Those of you who've had viruses wreck havoc on your computer know how easily programs can be altered so that the computer does what the hacker wills it to do. A computer can easily be programmed to count Noynoy votes for Gibo, for instance. The Omnibus Election Law tells us that counting of our votes has to be done in public, in full view of everyone. Section 206 states that, “Counting to be public and without interruption. As soon as the voting is finished, the board of election inspectors (BEI) shall publicly count in the polling place the votes cast and ascertain the results. The board of election inspectors shall not adjourn or postpone or delay the count until it has been fully completed, unless otherwise ordered by the Commission (on Elections or COMELEC).”

As citizens, it is our right to know how our votes are counted. This right is an inalienable right, guarranteed by Section 7 of our Constitution, “The right of the people to information on matters of public concern shall be recognized.” Election is a matter of public concern, and we have a collective right to know how the votes on our ballots are counted. Thus the need for open and public counting.

Unfortunately, in May, 2010, the voter will never know how the automated voting machines read his ballot, and how the machine added up all the votes to produce the precinct election return. Here's an articles on automated election fraud (you can do your own search on the internet) that explains how easily computers can be set up to count Noynoy's votes as Gibo's: Automated Election Fraud by Manuel Alcuaz, Philippine Daily Inquirer. The article describes how automated election fraud can be committed and what kind of safeguards should be installed so that we know that our votes have been properly counted at the different levels.

Recently, Comelec's Atty. Rafanan assured the lawyers of Negros Occidental that there is a new breed of trustworthy people in Comelec and that before the bidding that Smartmatic won, there were many who prayed and fasted for a successful process that would produce a good contractor. After a very upbeat and optimistic talk about the wonders of automation, Rafanan told the lawyers that in the end, we will have clean and honest elections not because Smartmatic and its partners did their job well, not because Comelec did its job well, but because we prayed and God made everything turn out well.

Given everything that could go wrong, Comelec's Rafanan is absolutely right. N4NM's Lina Hilado said she'd offer one decade of her daily rosary to praying for clean and honest elections in 2010. What are you prepared to do to ensure that when the people speak with their ballots in May 2010, their voices are heard?

by Atty. Andrea Lizares Si

[Dante Jose Amisola FSC]

Hi, Andrea!

The La Salle Brothers and the Lasallian Family through a technical panel have been in the forefront of the discussions with COMELEC here in Manila. Unfortunately, there are several issues that COMELEC has yet to attend to but which should have been addressed much earlier if the automation process were to be made credible. Among others: no implementing guidelines have been released yet as to the conduct of the automated process. COMELEC promised to release such in June then again as recent as this October yet nothing still. The implementing guidelines trace the conduct from central distribution of ballots from Manila to the provinces to what to do should the machines conk out at the precinct level to how the votes shall be relayed to city, provincial, regional centers (where cheating is usually done). Of course, there are still questions as to the source code and other related technical codes. COMELEC has not determined yet their release for examination. These and the other issues imentioned in the item you featured above.

We are working now with COMELEC to try to ensure the honest and credible elections we all want. But there is a lot to be desired in their actions. Unfortunately, Atty. Rafanan, by suggesting that all is in God's hand, may be hoping that we just sit back and trust all will go smoothly because God will will it so (Deus ex machina). While we believe in the power of prayer, we also believe that we need to be eternally vigilant through our actions and that COMELEC has to back up their niceties and supposed good intentions with credible responses. COMELEC responses to our valid queries and concerns would determine the course of our future engagements with them. While we are hopeful this would eventually work for the sake of the election process, COMELEC actions, or inaction for that matter, are casting a doubtful pall over the outcome of this automation process.

We will still continue with our engagement with them knowing full well that we are working for the future of the electoral process. We remain hopeful that we shall effect meaningful change and pray that God will see us all through a credible, honest, and clean election in 2010 and beyond.

[Emman Carmona]

Stealing elections has been the hallmark of Philippine politics and there's no end in sight for this despicable acts and total disrespect for the democratic process. There has been no resolution to complaints of election fraud in the past and the future is a bleak place when it comes to transparency and upholding the sanctity of the ballot. There is no doubt that automated voting machines will be implemented. The pipeline and plan by COMELEC already exists. However, there are several issues that will affect the outcome of the elections with the use of the electronic voting equipment. I think, some of these are the following:

1. Voter disenfranchisement. The Philippines general electorate is not technologically adept except for those who are living in urban centers. Majority of the voting population still resides in rural areas. These people have not used a complicated equipment except perhaps a radio, VCR, and television. These voters would be so intimidated and would have a very difficult time manipulating a touch screen voting equipment for the first time in their lives. These voters will need more time at the voting kiosk. Now multiply this time spent to the number of people waiting in line. A lot of people would not be able to vote because the polling station will close at a designated time. To remedy this is to hold early voting in piloted areas were anticipated problems will occur in order to lessen the influx of voters during election day. However, does COMELEC, have identified this problem area or thought of a plan like this? Another problem would be equipment malfunction. How many equipment will be used per precinct or the ratio of the equipment per registered voters? If one equipment malfunctions in a precinct, a lot of voters will not be able to cast their vote because if there's no back up and only one equipment is left available, then the agony of waiting will be too much to bear that voters would elect to go home unable to cast their votes and end up being disenfranchised.

2. Where's the Vote? Automated voting machines will be easily rigged, with no paper trails to document abuses. It is very easy to manipulate the elections result by those special interest groups that has connections to the company that supplied the voting equipment and how can COMELEC keep secret the 'voting-system source codes? Any candidate or political party can buy this codes and corrupt the system. There is no paper trail to record a vote therefore there's nothing to be counted or be recounted. Voters would think that they are casting their vote but either by fraud, intimidation, manipulation or error, their vote might end up a vote to another candidate. In the US, David Stutsman, an Indiana lawyer whose suits in the 1980's exposed a trapdoor that is being used by the nations largest election company at that time, puts it well: The secrecy of the ballot has been turned into the secrecy of the vote count." It seems that COMELEC, wants everyone to have blind faith in an electronic voting equipment that has have had proven failures even in the US.A, a very high tech savvy country.

3. The Stakeholders. The security of the voting machine system will be compromised. The votes will be consigned to computers under the mercy of the computer programmers and who control these computer programmers? With the millions and billions of money involved in the battle for political control, potential attackers who wants to fix the elections result such us hired hackers, political parties, and foreign governments will use every available means at their disposal to influence the outcome of the elections. Can local COMELEC officials stop them?

There's no doubt that there will be fraud and error in this coming presidential elections using the touch-screen voting equipment.

If you ask me what suggestions I had to ensure a clean honest elections. I think, I may have projected one, but over all, I have not given it much thought but maybe because, I find Philippines politics so corrupting. Don't think of me, though, as being cynical. But whoever will win next year's presidential elections, my congratulations in advance.

Emman C.

[Emman Carmona]

By invoking Deus ex machina, Comelec's Rafanan, already has conceded and accepted the fact that there will be errors and fraud that will happen in this coming presidential elections and that his agency is inutile to stop it.


Emman C.