Smartmatic, Comelec officials charged
The camp of Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. yesterday filed a complaint against four Smartmatic executives and three Commission on Elections (Comelec) officers for their alleged illegal access to the poll body’s computer system and for unauthorized altering of data.
Included in the complaint filed by Marcos’ campaign manager Jonathan A. Dela Cruz before the Manila Prosecutor’s Office are Marlon Garcia, Smarmatic-Total Information Management (TIM) Technical Support team head; Elie Moreno, project director of Smartmatic; Neil Banigued, member of the Smartmatic Technical Support Team; Mauricio Herrera, member of Smartmatic Technical Support Team; Rouie Peñalba, Comelec Information Technology Officer II; and Comelec IT specialists Frances Mae Gonzalez and Nelson Herrera.
In the 15-page complaint sheet filed before City Chief Prosecutor Edward Togonon, the respondents were charged with violation of Section 4 of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 “by accessing a computer without right.”
They are also being charged with violation of Section 4 (a) (3) of the same act by “intentionally altering computer data right” and for “intentionally altering and interfering with the functioning of a computer network by inputting, deleting and altering computer data and program, without right or authority.”
The complaint stemmed from an unauthorized script change in Comelec’s transparency server “that caused widespread anxiety and concern amongst the nation. The lapses in protocol have undermined the credibility and integrity of the 2016 elections including the confidentiality, integrity and availability afforded to computer data and systems,” the complaint affidavit said.
“When respondents, without notice to the Comelec En Banc and without securing the authority of the latter, unilaterally decided to change the script of the transparency server, they became liable for illegal and unauthorized accessing of a computer system, intentional altering and interfering with the functioning of computer and computer network by inputting, deleting, and altering computer data and program,” the charge sheet stated.
In the Annex page of the complaint, Dela Cruz recalled that on May 10, representatives of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) and Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) political parties approached them and raised the issue of a mismatch in the inner hashes generated in the transparency server results file.
Herrera made an adjustment to the script to fix the issue by replacing the “?” with the “ñ” character.
Dela Cruz said the Comelec en banc was not notified of the script change.
“Sa batas kasi, sabi hindi mo puede buksan o kalikutin ang system at wala kang karapatan makialam dun that has anything to do with information and communication system,” lawyer Jose Amor Amorado, head of the internal quick count operation of Marcos, said in an interview.