Comelec says automation may fail, but not polls

MANILA, Philippines - The clock is ticking for the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to finish preparations for the country's first automated polls.

Many fear the elections will end up in chaos and failure.

But the Comelec has tried to assure voters that the elections will proceed smoothly.

Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said the elections will not fail, insisting that the poll body has a back-up plan in case the machines bog down.

The Comelec said if the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines conk out, there are almost 6,000 spare machines that can be used.

This was what the poll body did when 2 machines malfunctioned in the Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV) in Hong Kong over the weekend.

If the Comelec runs out of spare machines, Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) can transfer the compact flash card of the PCOS to another machine where the votes will be counted.

In case of a problem in transmission, the SIM cards of the modem can be interchanged, a satellite facility can be used or the compact flash card containing the election results can be brought to the canvassing center.

If all these contingency measures fail, the Comelec said the votes can still be counted manually.

Forms for manual elections are being printed in case automation fails in some parts of the country.

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said they are prepared for a 30% failure of poll automation by resorting to manual elections.

The Comelec added that the National Printing Office is about to complete printing the 50 million ballots needed for election day.

Only 5 million ballots have yet to be printed.

Failure of automation, not failure of elections, the Comelec said, is the worst that can happen to this year's polls.

And even if it happens, the poll body assures the country it will eventually have a new set of leaders.

Comelec is ‘stupid,’ says Boy Abunda

MANILA – Television host Boy Abunda has branded the Commission on Elections (Comelec) as “stupid” after the latter turned down the accreditation of “Ang Ladlad” due to "moral grounds."

"Ang Ladlad" is an organization of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender (LGBT).

Reports said Comelec rejected “Ang Ladlad” for party-list accreditation on the grounds that it advocates "sexual immorality" and "immoral doctrines."

Abunda did not take this statement sitting down. Abunda lambasted the poll body for reportedly calling the group a “source of immorality.”

He said in his show "SNN: Showbiz News Ngayon:" "'Yong sinabi ng Comelec na ‘Ang Ladlad’ is parang the source of immorality, sabi ni Mayor [Rodrigo] Duterte (of Davao City) ngayong araw (Tuesday) sa mga front page, it is bigotry of the highest order. Para sa akin, 'yan ay isang katangahan."

"Para sa akin, isang malinaw talaga na walang pang-unawa na tama [ang Comelec]. And you are a government agency, 'yon lamang," Abunda added.

Abunda’s co-host and close friend Kris Aquino also defended her gay friend.

“You are mean. And the gay people naman are taxpayers. So, what's the problem?" Aquino said.

On November 11, the Comelec said although the party presented proper documents and evidence for their accreditation, its petition was "dismissable on moral grounds."

Page 5 of its ruling states that “Ang Ladlad's” definition of the LGBT as a marginalized sector "makes it crystal clear that the petitioner tolerates immorality which offends religious beliefs."

The document quotes passages from both the Bible and the Koran that describe homosexuality as "unseemly" or "transgressive."

The Comelec also went on to state that accrediting “Ang Ladlad” would pose risks for Filipino youths.

"Ang Ladlad" also applied for party-list accreditation in 2007, but was denied due to the lack of regional membership in the Philippines.

In a previous phone interview with abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak, “Ang Ladlad,” through its head Danton Remoto, said the group would contest the Comelec ruling before the Supreme Court.

Remoto, who taught literature at the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University for over 20 years, criticized the Comelec's allegation that older homosexuals are threats to the youth.

He also took issue against the Comelec ruling's frequent citation of Internet-sourced reports, saying that a legal document should at least use primary sourcing. Remoto said this spoke of "intellectual bankruptcy" among Comelec officials.

Remoto said the Comelec ruling is offensive to the LGBT community and an insult to their human rights.

Comelec extends registration hours

In anticipation of last-minute registrants, the Commission on Elections will be extending by at least four hours the daily voters' registration being conducted across the country until the end of the month. "We are aware that a lot of Filipinos choose to register at the last minute. So in order to accommodate them and also address the growing crowds at our field offices as we near the registration deadline, the Comelec en banc has ordered the extension of office hours in all registration centers nationwide," said Comelec spokesman James Jimenez. Jimenez said that starting October 22 until October 30, registration hours in Comelec field offices will be open from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. Registration on October 31, the last day for registration, will be open until 12 midnight. Jimenez was quick to clarify, however, that they are only extending the registration hours, not the registration days. "We need the remaining time this year to finalize the list of voters so that we can finalize also our allocation, if we cannot finalize out allocations on time, we might have shortages on election day and that is something we want to avoid," he told reporters. For this purpose, Jimenez said they are also fielding 62 new data capturing machines used in the registration process. “Nagkaroon ng sobrang daming dating ng bagong rehistro (There was an influx of new registrants), in order to accommodate the overflow, we will be fielding 62 new data capturing machines throughout various places in Metro Manila," he said. Jimenez said these machines will definitely boost the number of registered voters listed with the poll body. "What you need to really appreciate I guess is the impact of these new machines. The reason why we are moving really slowly is isang makina o dalawa lang sa isang place (there is only one or two machines in one place)," he said. Earlier, the Comelec had also opened the registration for two Sundays in areas greatly affected by typhoons “Ondoy" and “Pepeng." "Those that were affected by the floods will have Sundays but other places outside Luzon will not have registration day on Sunday," said Jimenez. The offices of the elections officers opened last October 18 and will also be open on October 25 including those in Regions I, II, III, IV-A, V, CAR, and NCR. The Comelec had also earlier allotted last Friday, October 16, as a special registration day for persons with disabilities in six cities, specifically Cagayan De Oro City, Davao City, Cabanatuan City, Zambonga City, IloIlo City, and San Fernando City in Pampanga. Meanwhile, the poll body spokesman said they are also looking into reports that some Comelec field offices have not been doing their work properly. "We’ve been receiving reports of this, we’re trying to figure out on a case to case basis. Obviously, bawat isang lugar mayroon siyang sariling set of challenges na kung minsan (every place will have their own set of challenges which would sometimes) lead them to open late or sometimes not open at all," he said. Figures from the poll body indicate that as of July 2009, there are a total of 45,638,243 registered voters for the 2010 elections. In the 2007 elections, there were 45,029,443 registered voters

Comelec chief faces contempt rap

Commission on Elections (Comelec) chair Jose Melo faces contempt raps after he disclosed Wednesday that the Supreme Court (SC) gave automated elections a go.

SC spokesman Jose Midas said that University of the Philippines lawyer Harry Roque filed a motion seeking to have Melo, also a former SC jurist, held in contempt of court for leaking the SC decision on the poll automation case.

The High Tribunal voted 11-3-1 to junk the petition filed by Roque and the Concerned Citizens Movement which sought to have the P7.3-billion automation contract between Comelec and Smartmatic-Total Information Management (TIM) Consortium nullified.

Melo told the media that they won the case a day before the High Court released the decision. He said, however that there is no leakage as he claimed that he received the information from another Comelec official, Professor Renato Garcia. Garcia allegedly heard of the news from radio reports.

Last February, the SC was caught in a similar controversy. Then Justice Ruben Reyes’s decision on the disqualification case against Negros Oriental Rep. Jocelyn Limkaichong fell on the hands of one of the petitioners, Louis Biraogo.

The draft of the decision showed that 14 justices voted to have Limkaichong removed from the post because she is not a natural-born Filipino citizen. Biraogo then accused Chief Justice Reynato Puno of sitting on the case because he is the only one who did not sign the draft.

The high court later traced the leakage to Reyes himself, who by then has retired already. He was fined P500,000.

Comelec to tap 80,000 IT people for 2010 elections

MANILA, Philippines — With the obstacles to poll automation for the 2010 elections almost all cleared, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is now looking for information technology (IT) people to handle the voting machines.

Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento on Thursday said at least 80,000 IT personnel are needed to assist board of elections inspectors (BEIs) in the forthcoming polls.

RELATED LINKS» Smartmatic Backgrounder» Report/ Recommendation on the 2010 Automation Elections Project Procurement» Comelec to trim down polling precincts by 70%Anticipating the possibility that not enough public school teachers would be able to fill the required staff, the Comelec plans to tap IT personnel from various government agencies.

Should that still not be enough, the Comelec might tap the private sector, Sarmiento said.

He explained that the Comelec is allowed to tap IT-capable persons to be present in each precinct during Election Day.

Only those accredited by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) would be tapped, he added. Sarmiento said the mechanics of tapping IT people will be up for discussion at the Comelec very soon.

With the signing of a contract designating Smartmatic and Total Information Management (TIM) as the automation partner of the Comelec for the May 2010 elections, the poll body said it will go ahead with the clustering of the 250,000 precincts used in the 2007 polls to reduce these down to only 80,000 precincts.

Under the P7.2 million contract, Smartmatic and TIM will supply the 82,500 voting machines for the 2010 elections, with 2,500 machines serving as backup. One precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machine is to cover about 1,000 voters.

Aside from the reduced number of precincts, the number of personnel manning the precincts will also be significantly reduced.

In the 2007 elections, the Comelec had to tap private school teachers to serve as members of the BEIs due to lack of public school teachers.

Records of the Department of Education (DepEd) showed that it had only 500,000 teachers during that most recent election, short of the 750,000 teachers required to serve as election inspectors. While Smartmatic Corp and TIM have promised to send their own computer technicians to manage the voting machines, the Comelec said such technicians won’t be allowed inside polling precincts.

Sarmiento said the law is specifically states that only BEI members and the IT-capable person are allowed inside polling precincts.