IT giants behind consortium in poll automation project

The consortium that won the bidding for the Commission on Elections’ P1.3-billion second phase counting automation project is composed of top information technology (IT) companies and veteran businesses that have proven track records and are among their respective industry leaders.

The Mega Pacific Consortium (MPC) has 20 years of satisfactory record and expertise in the country’s election process, assuring a dependable and full-proof automated counting and canvassing of votes.

Lawyer Alfredo Lazaro Jr., MPC spokesman, said the consortium is led by Mega Pacific eSolution Inc. (MPEI), a domestic corporation whose stockholders are veteran entrepreneurs who have long supplied the Comelec with election paraphernalia for more than two decades.

MPEI has a paid-up capital of P300 million, which is more than the required 10 percent of the P1.3-billion project cost, Lazaro said.

Other members of the consortium include SK C&C, South Korea’s most advanced IT service provider which provided the counting machines in the 2002 local and national elections in South Korea covering a combined 50 million voters.

Lazaro said the South Korean firm would provide the automated counting machines in the project.

The three other partners include local giants ePLDT and WeSolv, a communications and networking subsidiary of Fujitsu Phils. Inc. The third partner is Election.com Inc., a leading election software and services company based in New York and London.

ePLDT, the information and communications technology company of telecommunications giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., will provide the secure Verisign digital certificates and encryption components of the election project. Trillion of computer hours are required to crack the 128-bit security code.

WeSolv, on the other hand, will be responsible for the training of necessary personnel, nationwide deployment and installation of automated counting machines, provision of technical support, maintenance and emergency repair services, and machine technicians before, during and after the May 10, 2004 elections.

Meanwhile, Election.com Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Accenture, an internationally renowned IT company, will develop the election canvassing software for Comelec.

Lazaro noted that apart from being leaders in their respective industries of paper trade, printing, binding, steel products, fabricators, inks and chemicals and security solutions for documents and identification, and information technology, the consortium has also researched and studied the modernization of the election process for more than 10 years since the time when Christian Monsod chaired the Comelec.

"Having served the Comelec for numerous elections in the country, the incorporators have gained superior know-how of the election process and machinery, including the multi-facets of elections and their related problems," Lazaro said.

"We also have persistently interacted with the five administrations of the Comelec which advocated for the modernization of elections," he added.

Poll modernization involves the combined application of paper technology, printing and ink technology for ballots, computing technology, and optical scanning technology for counting and canvassing.