Whatever the outcome of Commission on Elections (Comelec)’s investigation on the unauthorized changes made by Smartmatic-Total Information Management Corp. (Smartmatic) in the transparency server used by the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), it is undeniable that the Venezuelan-owned company committed a serious violation not only of its supply contract but also of the country’s electoral laws. If only to show that our laws and rules are not to be trifled with, the harshest penalty possible ought to be imposed on Smartmatic – perpetual disqualification from any Philippine elections. After all, there are many (and bigger) providers of electronic voting systems in the world other than Smartmatic. Comelec chairman Andy Bautista’s explanation (surprisingly echoing Smartmatic’s excuse for lack of a better alibi) that the correction of the computer script of the Comelec transparency server was merely a “cosmetic change” and did not affect the poll results, is at best ill-informed and speculative, and at worst misleading. Well-intentioned or not, the supposedly “minor” change does not justify Smartmatic tampering with the electronic canvassing system, more so while the bulk of the voting results were being transmitted to the Comelec servers.
The law and the rules are very clear – Any change in the automated election system should have the approval of the Comelec en banc. It did not matter whether the supposed script change was a harmless alteration or not. Smartmatic’s unauthorized tweaking of Comelec’s computer system is a classic case of the cure being worse that the disease. Even if the modification involved a line of code to replace the “?” character with an “ñ” character (or so they say), the damage it wrought on our electoral process is immeasurable.
With the press of the (Enter) key, Smartmatic shattered not only the so-called “integrity” of Comelec’s electronic canvassing system but also the credibility of the entire automated election process. Although Smartmatic claims it only made a minor change in the program, we’ll probably never know if anything else was altered.
Perhaps more worrisome is the fact that Smartmatic was able to access the computer system and modify the program in the server right under the very nose of Comelec. Apparently, Comelec’s Bautista did not even know about the script change until after the incident blew up in media. That the poll body was the last to know about Smartmatic’s unauthorized changes was confirmed by Comelec commissioner Chris Lim who admitted that “…the change was made and the parties were only informed after the change was made.”
Full Article: Is Smartmatic selling more than just VCMs? | The Manila Times Online.