Bribery at the Comelec?

But what was more intriguing besides Jade Deocampo Deinla’s stupid notion that he could buy off the country’s top elections official was the fact that he was endorsed as consultant in the Comelec by one of its commissioners the self-styled IT expert Augusto “Gus” Lagman.

Both Lagman and Deinla are associated with transparentelections.org.ph, a group of IT and business professionals who had pushed, but failed, for the application of the Open Election System (OES) in the Philippines’ first-ever nationwide automated elections in May last year. They belong to a group of 12 supposed electoral reform activists who had conceptualized and developed OES.

The OES is actually a mongrel or semi-automated system because it advocates the manual tallying of votes at the precinct level and the encoding of these results into computers at the canvassing level.

In a subsequent media interview, Lagman admitted that he had worked with Deinla in the 2004 and 2007 elections when they were both connected with the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), and that they had a business deal in the past involving a computer system development.

(Speaking of Namfrel, Lagman goofed big-time in 2001 when the computerized quick count system that he had set up for this poll watchdog—he was then Namfrel’s systems committee chairman—crashed at the onset of its independent vote canvass in that year’s midterm balloting.)

This Deinla character apparently thought that he could make a quick buck after he found out that Ximex, a private contractor hired by the Comelec to transport ballot boxes and other election paraphernalia in the Visayas and Mindanao during the May 2010 elections and the subsequent barangay polls, was having problems collecting its claim from the Comelec.

Deinla apparently heard of Ximex’s problem and proceeded to bribe Brillantes for P3 million in exchange for his vote for the release of the company’s claim. According to sources, Deinla dangled the possibility of Brillantes receiving P1.5 million upfront and another P1.5 million after the passage of the Comelec resolution approving the P43 million release to Ximex.

Instead, Brillantes reported him directly to the commission en banc and then order his termination.

It’s about time that the Commission on Appointments really take a second hard look at Lagman’s background and credentials.

Lagman, for one, is facing criminal charges before the Makati Regional Trial Court for having allegedly misled the board of directors of Systems Standard Inc. (SSI), where he was formerly a high-ranking officer, when he “falsely represented that there were no substantial developments” in the planned infusion of capital amounting to $1 million to Vinta Systems by a potential US-based investor. Vinta is owned by SSI.

Lagman also has a clear conflict of interest with regards to the Comelec’s most urgent concern--the modernization of the election system—in being the foremost proponent of the AES, which has been rejected was already not only by the Comelec but also by a highly respected and renowned international election observation mission—the Carter Center—with a record of observing 80 elections in 30 countries over a span of three decades.

A global peace advocacy institution founded by former US president Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn, the Carter Center, belittled in its 2011 report the mongrel types like the OES, saying that “efforts to use electoral technologies to decrease the time necessary to conduct results aggregation would potentially be undermined by retaining a manual count.”

Contrary to this mild rebuke of the OES, the AES implemented by the Comelec using Smartmatic-TIM’s PCOS machines and technology was highly praised by the Carter Center mission.

Brillantes had conceded during a Senate hearing that the government “can definitely save much” if Comelec were to exercise its option of purchasing the PCOS machines—at Smartmatic-TIM’s bargain offer equivalent to the 33 percent cost balance rather than acquiring new technology and new machines for the next elections. 

The Comelec would be saving an estimated P18 billion over the next two elections by purchasing the PCOS machines outright and using them in the next two nationwide electoral exercises at the least, as what had been done in other countries like the United States, Brazil, Venezuela, Belgium and India that have bought the same equipment.

If the Comelec decides to lease machines anew for the next two elections in 2013 and 2016 under the Aquino administration, it would be needing a total of P21.816 billion to similarly automate these electoral exercises. But if it were to just take Smartmatic-TIM’s offer to buy the PCOS units, the Comelec would just need P1.822 billion to do so plus another P2.035 billion for warehousing and maintenance, or a total of P3.857 billion.

Filipino voters are already familiar with the system of voting using the PCOS machines, so that the past efforts to educate voters on the automated system of balloting in 2010 would not go to waste.

Another benefit of using the PCOS machines   is the easier and faster certification process for the technology, which is currently being recertified for improved functionalities.

The members of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) are already familiar with the PCOS machines, thereby equipping them with a high level of confidence in operating these units in the next elections.

Using Smartmatic-TIM’s tried-and-tested technology would also provide the Comelec the opportunity to introduce improvements on the software and procedures, such as biometric authentication and other safeguards.

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