No systems audit now – Comelec
Ongoing vote canvass, cases vs Smartmatic, poll body cited
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has decided to defer any action to the request of vice presidential candidate Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. for systems audit of its transparency server and central server.
Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista cited three reasons for the deferment, among them the ongoing canvassing of votes for president and vice president in Congress.
“We have reservations since canvassing has already begun in Congress, which also has the mandate to proclaim the winning president and vice president. So, what could be its effect if we allow this audit by a par-
ticular candidate,” he said in a forum in Manila.
“There are also these criminal complaints versus Smartmatic and Comelec. What could happen if they find anything during the audit? Will they use it as evidence?” added Bautista.
The Comelec chief said they also gave political parties, which include the camp of Marcos, enough opportunity to scrutinize the 2016 Automated Election System (AES), referring to the source code review that was conducted seven months before the May 9 polls.
“All parties and candidates and civil society organizations have been given enough time to audit and review the systems to be used since last October. So it cannot be said that we did not open the process to stakeholders,” said Bautista.
Open to system audit
He said that since they are also for transparency, they are open to a systems audit to be conducted by a third party such as the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).
“We are open to a disinterested, non-partisan group to conduct the systems audit. If they want to do so, we are open to it,” said Bautista.
Bautista said a meeting with the DOST and the Comelec Advisory Council (CAC) is in order following the complaint of Marcos that an alleged illegal, unauthorized changing of the script in the Comelec transparency server affected his votes in the May 9 national elections.
The Comelec chief conceded that the scope and methodology of the system audit, as requested by Marcos, is not clear.
“It might take months. Siguro on our own, we will be meeting with our DOST counterpart and the Comelec Advisory Council,” he said.
When Bautista was sked when will the Comelec lift the deferment of action on Marcos’ request, he said, “Until the completion of the canvassing of votes for president and vice president and the conclusion of the criminal cases.”
Earlier, Marcos formally asked the Comelec to allow his own IT experts, with the supervision of the poll body and possible participation of other interested parties, to conduct a system audit not only of the transparency server but also of the central server the poll body used in the elections.
The camp of Marcos said the system audit will determine whether the script change was merely cosmetic, as the Comelec claimed, or affected other aspects of the Automated Election System.
They were referring to the changing of the programming script of the transparency server of the poll body last May 9 without proper authorization.
Marcos likewise filed criminal charges against officials of the poll body and its service provider, Smartmatic International, at the Comelec and the Manila Prosecutors Office.
The subsequent filing of criminal charges of violation of the Cybercrime Law against personnel of Smartmatic and the Comelec for illegally changing the script was triggered by the mysterious slowdown of Marcos votes and the unprecedented increase in the votes of his closest rival, Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo, on the night of the May 9 elections.
The camp of Robredo has already claimed victory by a slim “more than 200,000 votes.”
While Marcos wants Congress to eventually proclaim incoming president Rodrigo Duterte as winner in the presidential race because of his more than five million vote margin over his closest rival, he wants the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) made up of select senators and congressmen to go slow in the canvassing of the vote results in the vice-presidential race because of alleged electoral irregularities.
System vulnerable
Meanwhile, former Comelec Chairman Christian Monsod agreed yesterday that Comelec and Smartmatic personnel should be held accountable for the system change in the transparency server of the poll body.
Speaking during the Ciudad Fernandina Forum, Monsod said that while the script change may just be cosmetic as claimed by the Comelec, it shows how vulnerable the system is to manipulation.
“It may be just cosmetic change. But it just shows that the system is vulnerable. We have known that for a long time that there is no system that is not vulnerable. The Comelec did not have tight control or safeguarding. It may just be a cosmetic but it just shows the responsibility and accountability of the Comelec,” Monsod said.
Monsod likewise denounced how Smartmatic has been given so much power in the conduct of the elections, saying it should not have been the case.
“The biggest lesson in automation is never let the supplier control the operations. Never give them control or access to all critical and important points. They do their jobs, they supply the software but to the operations, the supplier must not operate. This must be purely the responsibility of the Comelec and the Filipino experts in technology,” he added.
Monsod also pointed out that the hash code change must be investigated, including incidents of electoral fraud and violence in Mindanao, specifically in Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, and Basilan.
Mindanao poll fraud
Also in the forum, witnesses of electoral fraud in Mindanao also surfaced to attest that in many areas in Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur and Basilan, no election took place because voters were prevented by supporters of the proadministration Liberal Party (LP).
Bassir Utto, who ran for vice mayor under the United Nationalist Alliance at Datu Saudi Ampatuan in Maguindanao, said many of his supporters were prevented by people of incumbent LP Mayor Samsudin Dimaukom from entering their precincts. LP supporters, they alleged, also engaged in ballot shading in favor of Robredo. He said he has the video to show the wholesale vote-shaving in favor of Robredo in his province.
Victor Abiillo, provincial coordinator of incoming President Duterte in Basilan, said his watchers in the municipalities in the province reported that many voters were prevented from casting their votes in precincts controlled by unidentified by armed men.
“Wala pong nangyaring botohan sa maraming lugar sa Basilan dahil pinigilan ang mga tao na bumoto at sinabing wala nang botohan kahit alas sais (6 a.m.) pa lang nang umaga,” he said.
In many of these areas, he pointed out, all the presidential and vice presidential candidates, except former Interior Local and Government Secretary Mar Roxas and Robredo, had zero votes.
He urged the Comelec to look into the incidents in Mindanao, saying they are risking their lives by making public the electoral fraud in their respective home provinces.