Smartmatic donates thermal paper for vote receipts

MANILA, Philippines - Voting 6-1, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday decided to accept the 1.1 million rolls of thermal paper donated by Smartmatic International to be used as voter receipts.

The poll body said it has also opted to accept the two million marking pens donated by the Netherlands-based company.

The pens will be used by voters to mark their ballots. 

“We discussed in our en banc meeting the offer of Smartmatic to donate marking pens and thermal paper. The law department made a recommendation that we would not be violating a law if we accept (the donations),” Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista told reporters.

Bautista said the law department also noted that Section 6 of the General Appropriations Act allows donations if the need is “emergency in nature.”

“These thermal paper are very important because that will allow us to comply with the ruling of the Supreme Court to print the voter receipts,” he said.

According to Bautista, the Comelec will be able to save P49 million from the donation of thermal paper of Smartmatic.

But for Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon, the donation might violate the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. 

“All the commissioners are lawyers and have their own interpretation. I just want to emphasize that there are Commission on Audit requirements that have to be met. We need to report to COA,” she said in an interview.

Guanzon added that with the donation, the Comelec had to cancel the public bidding for thermal paper.  

Smartmatic took part in the bidding but was outbid by Forms International Enterprises Corp., which offered the lowest calculated price.

In a memorandum, the law department reminded the commission that donations must be properly documented and recorded to ensure transparency and accountability.

Voter receipts

Meanwhile, a Comelec resolution states that those who will bring the voter’s receipts out of the polling precincts in the May 9 elections will face up to six years imprisonment.

Resolution No. 10088 states that “any person who takes away the voter’s receipt commits an election offense punishable under Sec. 261 (z) (12) of the Omnibus Election Code.

Aside from imprisonment, election offense is also punishable with suspension of the right of suffrage and disqualification from public office. 

“The voter’s receipt is an official election document or election paraphernalia, as held in Bagumbayan-VNP Movement Inc., et al vs Comelec G.R. No. 222731 (1-b) dated March 17, 2016,” the Comelec added.

The resolution contains the amended general instruction for the Board of Elections Inspectors (BEIs) on the final testing and sealing of the vote counting machines (VCMs).

The Comelec was directed by the Supreme Court to print the voter receipts to enable voters to check if their votes were counted accurately by the VCMs.

The high court, however, ruled that the voter receipts could not be taken out of polling precincts but should instead be deposited in receptacles.  

VCMs safe from hackers

Last Wednesday, the Comelec also assured the public that the VCMs are safe from hackers.

The poll body issued the statement on the heels of the hacking of its website.

At the media forum Kapihan sa Manila Bay, Smartmatic head for voter education Karen Jimeno said they can guarantee that the whole automated election system will be secured from hacking.

“The VCMs are not connected to the Internet so there is no way for hackers to access them. If they really want to try to access, they would have to attach their laptops to the VCMs on Election Day, in front of the BEIs and in front of all the voters,” she said.

Jimeno added that the encryption level of the VCM is 256 bits, “higher than what most banking programs use for security.”

“In fact, some professionals say that on a conservative estimate, it will take 50 years to hack the encryption of the VCMs and at the most, it will only yield 800 votes (from one polling precinct),” she said.

Former Comelec commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal, on the other hand, expressed concern over the possibility of the poll body’s databases being defaced again.

“The concern raised by some individuals is, if you can hack the website of the Comelec, what will stop some from hacking it again and, on Election Day, post results that are different from the real results?” he asked.

P1,000-hike in moratorium

In a related development, Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto is urging the Comelec and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to study the possibility of increasing by P1,000 the pay of teachers who will be on duty for 15 hours during the elections.

This is because voting hours have been extended from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m.

At present, the honorarium of each teacher who will serve in the BEI is P4,500, the senator said. A P1,000 increase for longer hours will bring the allowance of the teachers to P5,500 each. – With Christina Mendez