Automating future elections

Certain groups with disparate agendas are doing the country a great disservice in trying to torpedo the newly minted image of the Philippines as a showcase of fraud-free computerized elections in our part of the woods.

These party poopers have been getting little traction, if any at all, having been eclipsed by the acclaim that the country has been reaping here and abroad for the relative success of the Automated Election System (AES).

Voters were also generally happy because election results came in fast. A StratPOLLS post election survey covering eight key areas of Metro Manila showed a 97-percent satisfaction rate on the overall performance of poll automation. In fact, satisfaction ratings of 100 percent were registered in Manila, Makati, Valenzuela and Las Piñas.

Thus, these have resorted to separate legal actions in a pathetic bid to remain in the limelight and whip up public interest in, and support for, their lost causes.

But they are getting even more marginalized by the day, given the growing perception that such conspiracy theories of wholesale cheating are being peddled only by sore losers from among those who have either run for elective posts or had financial stakes in the public bidding for the computerized balloting system, which was won by the group of Smartmatic and Total Information Management Corp. (Smartmatic-TIM).

Take the case of the graft complaint filed before the Office of the Ombudsman against Comelec and Smartmatic-TIM executives by a certain Computer Society of the Philippines, which claimed, among others, that many AES security features were abandoned or disabled to clear the way to massive cheating.

Experts argue that the complaint has no legal leg to stand as the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines that Comelec had leased from Smartmatic-TIM for P7.19 billion were embedded with numerous hack-free security features to ensure clean voting and canvassing.

Fears of a band of Comelec-accredited technicians deciding the winners through pre-programming the PCOS machines are also believed to be off-tangent.

After all, every PCOS machine was under the joint control of the Comelec, Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and Smartmatic TIM. PCOS machines were only online for one to two minutes for the transmission of the results, and had used a security system similar to or even better than those used by banks for their Internet or ATM operations.

Dennis Villorente, director of the DOST Advanced Science and Tech Institute, had confirmed before the House suffrage committee that the PCOS machines garnered 100 percent accuracy reading results during the tests done by the DOST ahead of the elections. 

Al Vitangol III, a certified hacking forensic investigator, said during the House probe, on the other hand, that counting results were automatically saved in write-protected files in the CF Cards and thus could not be tampered with.

Demonstrations during the House committee inspection trip to Smartmatic’s Cabuyao, Laguna plant showed that PCOS machines did not count additional transmissions of the same ERs, audit logs could not be tampered with because the machine that was tested did not start up when it was fed its CF Card whose log had been edited, and efforts to delete a file or write a file on the Protected Backup CF Card both failed.

Are these groups really concerned about the possibility that the electorate may have been cheated or is there another reason?

There are reports that this computer society that filed a case with the Ombudsman’s office is led by somebody who used to head a US-based company that was a losing bidder in the AES project. The society also used to be headed by a guy who is the lead convenor of a group that lobbied hard for an alternative balloting scheme called the Open Election System (OES).

There are speculations that these losers want to scuttle any long-term arrangement between the Comelec and Smartmatic TIM, in the hope of participating and bagging the lucrative contract for the computerized election system in the 2013 mid-term races.

Rather than pay attention to the absurd ranting of sore losers, the government would do well to seriously consider buying all PCOS machines leased from Smartmatic TIM to save precious taxpayers’ money and ensure the integrity and success of future elections via the use of the same AES technology.

By buying these machines, the government would spend just about P4 billion to P5 billion (for services) in the succeeding polls, as against the P11 billion spent in the May 10 polls. 

After all, Comelec people have already been well trained on the technology provided by Smartmatic. Hence, no need for long learning curves in future automated elections.

Any plan to investigate the AES system in the 15th Congress would also be a useless exercise. Our lawmakers will be questioning the legitimacy of their very own poll victories determined under thesystem.  I doubt it if they would want that to happen.

I doubt it if there is anybody out there who still is not sure whether the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) is a blessing to motorists.

Travelling to the South used to be a nightmare. Both the vehicle and the passengers had to endure traversing a weather-beaten, pothole-riddled, ill-maintained, and accident-prone highway.

The South Luzon Tollway Corp. (SLTC), the new operator of SLEX, has invested huge amounts to make traveling through the 29-kilometer expressway a treat for motorists and travelers.

SLTC documents show that the new eight-lanes SLEX from Alabang to Calamba costs vehicle owners only P5.80 per kilometer for maintenance while the old potholed SLEX had a higher P9.09 vehicle maintenance cost per kilometer. That’s 64 percent lower or savings of P3.29 per km.

Taking into account the impending new toll rates of P2.73 per km, motorists still come out with 56 centavos per km. in terms of net savings.

But probably more important than monetary savings is the fact that using the SLEX is now a lot safer.

Time was when criminal elements, notably armed holdup men, were using the SLEX to ply their nefarious trade. But that should be a thing of the past now.

Seamless video coverage has become a permanent fixture of the SLEX. Close circuit television cameras (CCTV) installed in strategic spots of the SLEX can vividly capture traffic violations, hijackings and robberies, guard-rail and cable thefts, and even kids throwing trash out of vehicle windows in any part of the SLEX. The images are being fed to and recorded in a central monitoring station called the South Luzon Tollway Operation Control Center (OCC).

The high-definition cameras with up to 1.2 km range coverage are set up one kilometer apart throughout  the 29-km expressway. They transmit real-time video to a bank of 50 monitor screens at the OCC which is manned by traffic controllers who can maneuver the cameras  up to 360 degrees, and zoom in the faces of drivers and passengers, plate numbers  and other identifying marks of any vehicle on both directions of the tollway.

The film clips produced by the monitoring system can provide more conclusive evidence to aid police investigation and will be archived for future reference.

The CCTVs are also meant for quick responses to emergency situations. Even small belongings falling on the pavement could be easily spotted and retrieved.

In case of brownouts, emergency  batteries automatically power the monitoring system until the generators kick in. These gizmos have been installed in all of the 19 toll plazas in the reconstructed SLEX and are now being mounted on the new SLEX extension from Calamba to Sto. Tomas, Batangas.

Meanwhile, the extension, a four-lane tollway linking SLEX to the Star Tollway, will  soon be opened to traffic.

How’s that for a treat?

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