ICT group worries about poll automation
MAKATI CITY, Philippines— (UPDATE) A group composed mostly of information and communications technology (ICT) professionals is worried about late Wednesday’s approval of the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) supplemental budget for poll automation in 2010.
“I worry about the approval of the poll automation at the Senate. I worry what might happen in 2010 elections,” said Augusto Lagman, head of the Transparentelections.org during a presentation of version one of its Open Election System (OES) management software.
Lagman pointed out that the automated machines that would be leased for the 2010 poll would run on software that is proprietary.
He also claimed that the Comelec is also not ready to implement poll automation based on the report of the Comelec Advisory Council (CAC) on the automated elections in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao held in August 2008.
“Unless [Comelec] uses an open election system, we leave the outcome of elections to a foreign company and implementers, the Comelec–not to the voters as it should be,” Lagman said.
Lagman quoted a text message, which he said made him worried: The Senate approved the supplemental budget for full election automation at midnight. No more bicam[eral]. It will go straight to PGMA for signature.”
Citing Republic Act 9369 or the poll automation law, Lagman said a joint oversight committee would be created to asses the automated election system that would be used by the Comelec for the 2010 elections. This committee, headed by Senator Francis Escudero, had its first meeting with the Comelec last Wednesday.
“We will present to [Congress] and the Comelec Advisory Council a demonstration of the OES software that we have. I am awaiting the notice of CICT chair [Ray Anthony] Roxas-Chua III,” said Lagman.
He said under the proposed Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) system, vote padding, advance shading of ballots and other electoral fraud cannot be checked. PCOS is a type of optical mark recognition (OMR) machine.
Under the present manual voting system, voters write the names of the candidates then election officials check if the ballots are genuine or fraudulent based on their handwriting.
In an OMR system, Lagman said it would be very difficult to tell if only one person made all the markings in the special ballots.
Lagman claimed that results using an OMR system can be tampered by “over voting.”
Under an OES, the ballot is only counted as a “trusted paper trail” along with the election results since election officials can still check the ballots if they’re fraudulent or not by looking at the handwriting and signatures of the voters.
Lagman said the OES combines manual voting and tallying and automated canvassing. Thus there is no need for voters’ education because the manner of voting stays the same and manual tallying is very transparent, as it is done in public.
Once voting results are tallied per precinct, encoders can consolidate the data using an open election management system, which is built around an open source model of software development.
The Transparentelections group tapped Jaime Caro, chair of the Department of Computer Science at the University of the Philippines Diliman, to develop the first version of open election management system.
Caro said it took about two months to develop the first version of the software. Currently, the software is undergoing more refinement, as they add more security features.
The software will be used to input the precinct voting results from national to local candidates. Encoded voting results are then cross-checked by the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) and certified before it is printed and transmitted to a read-only mirror website.
For security features, encoders and BEIs are required to provide usernames and passwords to access the website before they can transmit, see and download election documents.
Once voting results are made available on a website, stakeholders can print and crosscheck the data uploaded with the election results posted at the doors of each precinct.
Lagman said that the OES design and software source code would be made available to the public for review and comment.
The Transparentelections.org targets to publish on its website the OES software design and source code next week, Lagman added.
The group also intends to gather comments from the public then use them to finalize the system design. Copies of these comments would to the Comelec, political parties, citizen’s arms and media.
After senate ok on poll fund
With the Comelec adopting an open election system, the group believes that all data, down to the precinct level, would be available to the public via the Internet and even through mobile phones.
Transparentelections.org is a group organized to push for clean and honest elections, according to its website. It is composed of concerned citizens, all of whom are technology practitioners promoting the adoption of an OES for the Philippine national and local elections in 2010.
All go for automated elections in 2010
Landmark measure junks manual electoral system
It’s full speed ahead for the computerized general elections on May 10, 2010, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chair Jose Melo said Thursday.
“We are ready. There will be full automation nationwide,” Melo said at a press briefing Thursday after the Senate passed the House-approved P11.3-billion supplemental budget for the automation of the elections on May 10, 2010.
The Senate approval of the measure at midnight Wednesday finally discarded the fraud-prone manual counting of votes in the country.
Instead of writing on ballots, voters will shade the spaces allotted for the names of candidates. The ballots will then be inserted into the optical machine readers to be placed in clustered precincts all over the country.
Melo said the Comelec would pursue the nationwide automation of elections, despite opposition and skepticism from certain lawmakers and information technology professionals.
Although exhausted from almost seven hours of debate, main proponents Senators Edgardo Angara and Richard Gordon beamed after the presiding officer, Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada, banged the gavel to adopt House Bill No. 5715, which the House of Representatives
passed on Monday.
Angara said the supplemental budget was a landmark measure because it buried the electoral system introduced in the country since democratic elections started at the turn of the 20th century.
“It is the beginning of a new era of modern elections. I’m glad that my colleagues have embraced this march to modernization of the electoral process,” he said.
With nine of the 13 senators voting to support poll automation, Angara and Gordon declared in separate interviews after the plenary vote that the approval of the measure marked the end of the manual counting of votes in the country.
Angara, chair of the Senate finance committee and sponsor of the committee report, said the supplemental budget would bring back confidence in government, especially faith in the electoral system.
“It is the first block in confidence building. Faith in the Commission on Elections will begin. This bill is very crucial on the eve of a very crucial election in 2010,” Angara said in an interview right after the chamber adjourned for a month-long Lenten break at about 1 a.m. Thursday.
Results in two days
The results for national candidates from President, Vice President and senators will be known in two days, the Comelec said.
Comelec officials told senators before the plenary vote that technically voting would be manual, but the counting and transmission of votes would be automated.
The senators who voted for the measure were Senators Angara, Gordon, Juan Miguel Zubiri, Loren Legarda, Rodolfo Biazon, Lito Lapid, Ramon Revilla Jr., Gregorio Honasan and Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr.
Four senators—Benigno Aquino III, Jinggoy Estrada, Jamby Madrigal and Francis Escudero—voted against the measure.
Untested, undefined
“I am not willing to spend even a single centavo for a system which is not tested, for a system we cannot even describe or define, or a system that we’re not even sure of delivering a clean, honest and fair election,” Escudero said.
Madrigal said the planned automation could turn into a “nightmare” because the fundamental institutional reforms had not been implemented in the Comelec.
Legarda voted for the measure, although she said she was cheated in the 2004 elections when she ran for Vice President.
Legarda said that even in automated elections, the manner of manual voting was still greatly susceptible to fraud.
“I will vigilantly guard the Comelec in this process every step of the way in the hope that finally, free, honest and democratic elections can be held in our country that is truly reflective of the people’s will,” she said.
The approval of the measure prompted Zubiri, the Senate majority leader, to challenge the Comelec to do its job.
“We did our job, it’s time for you to do your job,” he said.
Focus on common good
Melo, who was present during the lengthy deliberations, assured the senators that the poll body could implement to the letter Republic Act No. 9369, or the Amended Automated Elections Law, which prescribes full automation of the country’s electoral exercise on May 10 next year.
The automation law was supposed to be implemented in the May 2007 elections but the Comelec sought a postponement, citing lack of time for preparations.
“With automated elections, our people can rely on the fact that their vote will be counted, and that their vote will mean change for the country, then they will stop being cynical. And once they stop being cynical, perhaps the focus will now be on the common good,” said Gordon.
Landmark
At the press briefing, Comelec commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer said the poll body would not consider suggestions to put on hold the nationwide computerized polls because of logistical problems. Neither will it look into the proposal of some IT experts to use the Open Election System, he said.
“Comments such as those are already too late in the day,” Ferrer said.
Scanner
Melo said full automation under the Precinct Counting Optical Scan (PCOS) would considerably reduce instances of fraud and cheating. It will also lessen election complaints because the system promises to be fast and accurate, according to the Comelec chief.
PCOS is a ballot-based system in which the voter will mark his choices on a specially printed ballot that features security markings. The ballot will then be fed into a scanner, which records and stores the votes.
Bidding by end March
Melo said the Comelec was within its timeline for the election preparations.
Since President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is set to sign the budget in the next few days, the Comelec sees the start of the bidding for the PCOS supply contract by the end of March.
Melo said the Comelec was set to approve the terms of reference (TOR) for the bidders on Friday and publish it next week.
“We want to give the service providers the opportunity to comment on the TOR then we will begin with the bidding process soon,” he said.
Rent 80,000 machines
The Comelec aims to award the contract before May 22 to give the winning bidder ample time to configure the machines. The poll body said it would rent around 80,000 machines for the 2010 elections.
Eleven foreign firms have expressed interest in bidding for the PCOS contract. These are US firms Sequioa, Avante, ES/S, Hart and Scantron; Venezuela’s Smartmatic; United Kingdom’s DRS; India’s Bharat; South Korea’s DVS Korea; Gilat Solution of Israel and Spain’s Indra System.
“These companies have demonstrated capabilities and good track records of successfully holding actual elections abroad,” said Commissioner Rene Sarmiento.
Based on the Comelec calendar, the supplier should deliver the machines to the Comelec on Nov. 28 and test the machines in December.
The long wait for automation
Updated February 26, 2009 12:00 AM
The law modernizing the elections, Republic Act 9369, was passed on Jan. 23, 2007. It updated and fine-tuned RA 8436, which authorized the Commission on Elections to use an automated system in the 1998 general elections. Eleven years after national hopes for modern elections were enshrined in law, Filipinos are still waiting for poll automation.
RA 9369 was passed two years ago, but everyone forgot to appropriate funding for it. Perhaps this was fueled by hopes that the Constitution could be amended and the 2010 general elections would not push through. When the Comelec reminded the nation that without money, there would be no poll automation in 2010, Malacañang finally submitted to Congress a proposal for a supplemental budget of P11.3 billion. Now it’s the turn of the House of Representatives to take its sweet time approving the funding.
Instead of speeding up the passage of the supplemental budget, congressmen are deliberating on amending a law that has not yet even been implemented. Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez is reportedly proposing that manual voting be retained for local races including those for Congress. Golez’s House colleagues seem receptive to the idea and are sitting on the supplemental budget until they make a final decision on the proposed amendment to RA 9369.
Why would congressmen want their votes to be counted manually? Maybe they are technophobes who don’t trust machines. Maybe they are sentimental folks who don’t relish parting with tradition. The ugliest speculation is that partial automation, with the old manual system retained in some areas — or, under the latest proposal, at the local level — provides better options for cheating. Surely this is not what Golez and the endorsers of his proposal have in mind.
Whatever the motive for the proposal, Congress should quickly decide whether or not it wants to take the Philippine voting system to the 21st century. Members of the previous Congress had made up their mind on this when they passed RA 9369. Now the present Congress is taking another look at the law. With just 14 months to go before the general elections, Congress does not have the luxury of time for a belated change of heart.
Philippine Star
Editorial
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=443590&publicationSubCategoryId=64
Philippines: a jueting Republic soon
By Harvey S. Keh
Contributor
LAST week, Pampanga Governor Eddie “Among Ed” Panlilio again made the headlines and even the front page of the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) when he broke the news that the reason why he wants his Police Provincial Director relieved from his position is due to the latter’s refusal to cooperate with him in his fight against illegal gambling particularly jueteng in his province.
What even made the news even more alarming was the fact that there are allegations that it was First Son and Pampanga Congressman Mikey Arroyo who was exerting pressure on the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to ensure that the demands of Gov. Panlilio will not be given. If we will recall, in the last 2007 elections, one of Gov. Panlilio’s main opponents was Lilia Pineda who was then a Provincial Board Member and wife of alleged jueteng lord, Bong Pineda.
We all know that despite meager resources and limited amount of time to prepare, Gov. Panlilio through the support of the civil society and church groups was able to win and one of main thrust of his administration was to put an end to jueteng in Pampanga thus, ridding his province of the label, “the Vatican of Jueteng in the Philippines”. Barely a year in office, Gov. Panlilio filed a plunder case against Bong Pineda for his alleged involvement in jueteng operations all over the country.
I was in Pampanga over the weekend and I was listening to a local radio station wherein two radio commentators were saying that instead of focusing on the eradication of jueteng, Gov. Panlilio should just let the issue go and focus his efforts elsewhere.
I was disturbed by those comments since if we recall, wasn’t jueteng one of the major reasons why many of us went to the streets leading to the ouster of President Joseph Estrada? How many families have been destroyed by this prevailing addiction to illegal gambling?
It is a grim reality that many politicians in our country from the local government units up to our national government continue to allow jueteng operations to run since they also benefit from it. The money that is earned by taking advantage of the hopelessness of the poor is then used to buy votes during elections or even influence the results thereby perpetuating themselves in power.
For a country that is run by a few selfish interests while millions continue to live with less than 100 pesos a day, the upcoming 2010 National Elections again present an opportunity for us to elect the right leaders for our country.
Yet, this may only remain an elusive dream if we continue to allow jueteng lords to influence the results of the elections thus, making our political leaders beholden to them. Gov. Panlilio is right in fighting jueteng because by doing so, he is not only fighting one of the causes of poverty in our country but he is also fighting to preserve the integrity of one of the most important rights that we have in a democracy, our right to freely choose effective and ethical leaders for our country.
However, we all have to realize that this fight against jueteng will not be won overnight given that this is also a source of livelihood for many Filipinos. The challenge for Gov. Panlilio is to ensure that he is able to stimulate enough economic activity and employment in his province so that Kapampangans will have opportunities to earn a decent living and they will no longer have to pin their hopes for a better life on this gamble of numbers.
The experience of other countries like Mexico and Colombia wherein money from illegal drugs has been used to elect the highest officials in their respective countries is something that we can all learn from. Drug lords continue to reign in these countries and it won’t be long that jueteng lords will also be our country’s rulers if we don’t do anything about it now. Do we want our country to be known not only as the Sick Man of Asia but also as the Jueteng Republic of Asia? I certainly hope not.
Harvey S. Keh is Director for Youth Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship at the Ateneo de Manila University-School of Government. Comments are welcome at harveykeh@gmail.com
http://blogs.inquirer.net/philippineelections/2009/02/24/philippines-a-jueteng-republic-soon/
Wake Up, Philippines! 
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