Everyone delayed transmission, except Comelec-Smartmatic

Disturbingly, tallying by much-touted superfast voting machines bogged down for two-and-a-half days after Election Day. Thirty percent of the results, or about 10 million votes that could alter the initial trend in the senatorial count, remained un-transmitted to central servers. For that, the Comelec and election automation supplier Smartmatic blamed the telcos, the party-lists, the precinct inspectors, the... It was everyone’s fault – except Comelec-Smartmatic’s.

Before that there was a spurt of ballot results from all over. In the few hours from the close of voting Monday till just past midnight, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, a poll watchdog, had come out with 54 percent of the results. Then it slowed down to trickles. By dusk Tuesday, only about 300,000 additional votes were recorded.

At first the PPCRV tally was even too fast. Other poll watchdogs that distrust it as a “Comelec-Smartmatic apologist” noted that it was able to report 12 million votes one mere hour after starting to count, a physical impossibility. The PPCRV acknowledged a computer program error. It only brought back to mind Election 2010, when 256 million votes were reported from only 40 million actual voters. That it took a Smartmatic exec and a tech to fix the watchdog’s bug last Tuesday did not boost credibility any. For it emerged that the PPCRV’s tallying software was made for it by Smartmatic, the very outfit it was supposed to watch.

The older watchdog Namfrel attributed the subsequent delays to modems and compact-flash (CF) cards. Allegedly there were too few modems, very slow at that, so precinct election inspectors had to queue up for long hours to transmit. In other cases, the CF cards were defective and wouldn’t transmit, so the inspectors – public school teachers – had to commute to poblacions to submit these to municipal canvassers.

The delays were concentrated in the usual dagdag-bawas (padding-shaving) areas: the Mindanao autonomous region and the Cordilleras. Another watchdog, the AES (Automated Election System) Watch, suspected that the counting was being manipulated. Criticizing Smartmatic’s precinct count optical scanners, the AES Watch had foreseen the transmission problems. Its computer expert-members warned that the Comelec never tested and retested the PCOS units for debugging, but relied only on Smartmatic’s false assurances of reliability.

Aside from selling the P9-billion PCOS, Smartmatic had bagged the multimillion-peso contracts to supply the modems and CF cards. The Venezuelan firm’s president Cesar Flores skirted the inadequacy of 15,000 modems for the 82,000 clustered precincts. He said transmission delays were due to weak signals from the three telcos: Smart, Sun, Globe. As for the CF cards, he said the teacher-inspectors must have misread the operation manual and punched the wrong PCOS keys.

Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes, in usual haughty vagueness, explained the delays thus: “There are other technical issues, but the (main is) the problem that I mentioned (in an earlier press-con), such as local fights, close contests.” He said that a dozen pesky disqualified party-lists also were delaying the convening of the Comelec as the national board of canvassers. How that could happen, he did not say.

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Did Customs chief Rufino Biazon suspend last Wednesday’s public auction of smuggled rice at the Port of Legazpi City? If so, he should sack whichever subordinate organized what surely was a rigged bidding. If not, then it’s Biazon who should be probed for allowing such scam.

Nearly 94,000 bags, 50 kilos each, were up for auction, confiscated from a smuggler from Vietnam last September. Incident reports at the time valuated the contraband at P135 million.

Notices to bid were inadequate. Advertisements were published in newspapers last May 9, 10, and 11 – Thursday, Friday, Saturday before Election Day, May 13, a holiday. Sunday, May 12, was a no-work day.

Bidders were supposed to submit pre-qualification documents between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 14. Among the required papers were: Bureau of Internal Revenue tax clearance from 2010-2012, consent from the Bureau of Customs legal section at the Manila head office, and several certifications from the National Food Authority.

Anti-graft crusader Marcelo Tecson blew the whistle on the obvious rigging. For, any potential bidder who got to read the notice only last Saturday would be turned off. Imagine, having only one working day – Tuesday the 14th – to complete the paperwork. At that, such paperwork would be by government personnel over whom the bidder has no sway; only the legwork would be within his control.

The bidder also would need to inspect the rice stock at the port in Bicol and then attend the pre-bid conference in Manila at 4:30 of Tuesday in order to compute a coherent price. The bidding proper was set for Wednesday, May 15, 10:30 a.m.

If this caper is not investigated, then the Customs deserves the moniker of daang baluktot (crooked path), as opposed to the admin’s straight and narrow.

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One Cathy Cardiño-Samson e-mails to justify the arrest of a radio commentator in Dipolog City early morning May 3. Police chief Reynado Maclang had made the arrest while the commentator was criticizing on air his alleged inability to solve a string of 19 homicides. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines denounced the act as yet another example of the impunity for which the country is ranked the third worst place for journalists. The NUJP quoted another commentator as saying that Maclang had banged his sidearm on the table inside the announcer’s booth, an act of intimidating the critic.

Cardiño-Samson’s defense was a justice department circular on warrantless arrests while crime was ongoing. The circular became basis for the inquest fiscal to accept the libel suit that Maclang filed while detaining the commentator till late that night.

For Cardiño-Samson, the circular and the fiscal belie the NUJP line that Western Mindanao police boss Juanito Vano Jr. is abetting Maclang. She added that the commentator was not a member of the Kapisanan ng Brodkaster sa Pilipinas (KBP), as if it was ever at issue.

Surely a case can be made that the circular covers index crimes and not libel, so the fiscal probably erred. Too, Cerdeño-Samson surely will soon learn that hundreds of broadcasters, individuals and networks, are not KBP members too; foremost is GMA News.

Meanwhile, Vaño might want to check out the weblink www.youtube.com/watch?v=jizvtZlAo4w&feature=youtu.be or http://youtu.be/jizvtZlAo4w. It shows Maclang in civilian clothing and vehicle, entering the compound of Gov. Rolando Yebes, accosting women about certain charges, without reading them their rights. The incident last May 8 again allegedly was without court warrant.

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