House e-voting system delayed as plenary rules are revised

MANILA, Philippines – The implementation of the proposed Biometric Electronic Voting System in the House of Representatives will take a little more time as amendments to House rules are still being finalized.

Speaker Prospero Nograles confirmed in a text message to The STAR that the project will take some time, but House Majority Leader Arthur Defensor was more specific, saying this could either be done before their break in mid-October, or before the year ends.

“The current rules may not be practical. We will have to deliberate on the amendment of the rules. It may be operational probably before we take a recess,” Defensor said.

One particular revision the Iloilo congressman cited is the convening of session during session days – from Mondays to Wednesdays – and the time-consuming roll call, often done twice, particularly when there is barely a quorum.

With electronic voting, the Speaker will simply direct the House secretary general to “declare open the registration of attendance” of the 240 House members, who will then press a button to indicate their presence once the session is called to order at 4 p.m.

“No more roll calls. The quorum will be announced in less than two minutes. Also, there will be no more viva voce,” Defensor said.

He added the e-voting project may still take some time because they also have to “perfect” the system.

Former Speaker Jose de Venecia, under whose watch the project was initiated, clarified that the entire project costs not P30 million as previously reported, but only P15 million, and that the House has released “not a single cent”.

House director-general Rodolfo Vicerra confirmed that InfoBahn Inc. won the P15-million ($341,000) award.

“The project is for the House but it is not House-funded. Instead, it is financed by the e-Government Fund supervised by the Commission on Information and Communications Technology under the Office of the President,” Vicerra wrote Nograles.

The installation of the state-of-the-art session hall may succeed in compelling truant lawmakers to religiously attend sessions because they have to register their thumbprints every session day and every time they vote on a measure.

“You have to be physically present to press the button. It requires a thumbprint, which means fingerprints of other persons will not be recognized,” said Catanduanes Rep. Joseph Santiago, who was in charge of the construction of the electronic voting system.

Each lawmaker’s table at the plenary hall will also be paperless, and will have only four buttons on it.

“The buttons are yes, no, abstain and another one for fingerprint scanner,” he said.

Lawmakers will thus have to be physically present at their tables because they have to press their vote in every time it is needed. This will prevent legislators from roaming around or going to other places when the House is deliberating on a measure.

“They can’t go anywhere. They will be obliged to sit down. In the US, they can vote inside their office, but not here,” he said.