Hi florangel thanks for the article
First, it was the President admitting a "lapse of judgment" over the "Hello Garci" controversy. Now it is Chairman Melo saying it was a lapse in judgment when Comelec awarded a P700-million contract for the supply of 1.81 million ballot secrecy folders. It defies logic when a Bids and Awards official defends the purchase of folders that cost P380 each saying that it is just a median price compared to the other quotations. We remember earlier scams - "noodles" for schoolchildren, the NBN-ZTE deal, although I don't remember if the officials concerned admitted errors in judgment. These were all botched deals, but nonetheless, they show what is happening if we are not looking.
Everyone prays for a clean and orderly election. Most everyone wants the automated election system to succeed. I think that those who have been passing on Cassandra-like warnings only want to keep the Comelec and its partners on guard.
Just recently, Bantay ng Bayan of the Catholic Bishops' Conference, and the National Secretariat for Social Action, and Namfrel expressed apprehension about lack of adequate safeguards. A recent lapse was the wrong ultraviolet ink used in printing ballots. Comelec and Smartmatic-TIM should have first tested the ink (a security marking) with the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) to ensure that poll equipment would be able to read them, they say. Now, the poll body will have to use lamps to manually verify existence of UV markings on the ballots. This problem was discovered in January but was not reported, according to Mon Casiple, member of the Comelec Advisory Council.
Bobby Tuazon, director of the Policy Staff Publications and Advocacy Center for People Empowerment (CenPeg) reinforces observations by other watchdogs - AES Watch, Kontra Daya Halalan during field tests and mock polls, that delays in ballot printing, unreliable printing systems, lack of voters' education present a grim scenario. Based on time and motion computation, only 50 percent of registered voters will most likely be disenfranchised unless voting is extended from 11 to 16 or even 40 hours. Other systems to be put in place include ensuring fully functional power and transmission, a General Instructions and random manual audit, and a viable contingency plan.
Citing RA 9369 or the Election Modernization Law which provides guidelines on how Comelec should install an AES, CenPeg noted that what had been shown instead are "haste, haphazardness, shortcuts, delays, and other management problems."
Furthermore, and this is significant, "it has deprived the country's ICT professionals, systems specialists, and scholars of the opportunity to share their skills and technology, and possibly, plug in safer systems."
On the other hand, Gene Gregorio, spokesman for Smartmatic-TIM defends the choice of the third party logistics (3PL) providers for the AES, namely, ACE Logistics, Argo Forwarders, and Germalin Enterprises by noting their qualifications - regional strength and solid record in servicing government projects. Last week, JP Fenix reports that Comelec had passed Resolution 8804 - Comelec Rules of Procedure on Dispute in an AES, Resolution 8805 - Rules and Procedures for the Final Testing and Sealing of the PCOs machines, and Resolution 8807 - Rules of Procedure concerning the Filing of Petition to Disqualify a Party List Nominee for Lack of Qualifications or Processing Some Grounds for Disqualification. Some 50,000 techies have been hired to help man the PCOs machines. Safeguards had been instituted such as: A requirement that technicians must issue an affidavit stating that they are not related to any candidate up to the fourth degree as well as to political parties or families. They can only go near a PCOs machine if asked by a voter. Otherwise, they are not allowed to talk or touch, or write, or press anything. Send your comment florangel.braid@gmail.com
