Supreme Court asked to compel Comelec to disclose source codes

MANILA, Philippines – The Supreme Court (SC) was again asked yesterday to compel the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to comply with its order to disclose the source codes used in the first automated elections last May.

The Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPeg) said the Comelec must make public the source codes.

In a statement, CenPeg said Comelec continues to disregard the SC’s Sept. 21 decision requiring it to make the source code “immediately available to CenPeg and all other interested political parties or groups for independent review.”

“Until now, no source code has been released by the national poll body; worse, despite the SC’s ruling upholding the right to independent review under Republic Act 9369, it (Comelec) wants CenPeg to conduct the review within the Comelec premises,” the group said.

“We are deeply saddened over the Comelec’s intransigence in not only complying with the letter and intent of the Supreme Court rulings but consistently refusing to disclose public information vital to an independent assessment of the automated elections and which is a citizen’s right under the constitutional provision of right to public information.”

CenPeg, former vice president Teofisto Guingona Jr. and the Automated Election System Watch have also been asking the Comelec to release 21 “vital public documents” pertaining to the contract that it signed with Smartmatic-Total Information Management Corp.

However, CenPeg said the poll body has not done so.

“We reiterate our challenge to the Comelec to exercise real transparency in action and in substance, not just in words and in form, by releasing not just a few, but all of the 21 important documents... It should prove its claim that the May 10 election was a ‘resounding success’ and a ‘dream poll’ by releasing without fear and hesitance all empirical evidences and other documents related to the election,” CenPeg said.

In separate motions, Guingona and CenPeg told the SC that the poll body has not complied yet with its order last September.

CenPeg said the Comelec is under obligation to reveal the source code considering reports that many of the PCOS machines malfunctioned during election day.

“It is therefore imperative for the voting public to fully review and determine that their will is genuinely and fully reflected by the automated system,” they said.

In insisting on the disclosure of the source code, the group invoked the constitutionally guaranteed right of the people to “information on matters of public concern, especially on matters that directly affect our democratic processes.”

The source code remained important and relevant despite the elections having already been held in light of several admissions of errors by Comelec and claims of fraud, CenPeg said.

In a unanimous decision last May, the SC granted the petitions of Guingona and CenPeg to obtain source code for the Data Capturing System.

The SC ruled that the Comelec is required to allow petitioners and all other interested political parties or groups to conduct independent review of the source code.

The law defines the source codes as “human readable instructions that define what the computer equipment will do.”

“Once an AES (automated election system) technology is selected for implementation, the Commission shall promptly make the source code of that technology available and open to any interested political party or groups which may conduct their own review thereof,” read the SC decision.

Chief Justice Renato Corona concurred in the ruling, along with Senior Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justices Conchita Carpio-Morales, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Mariano del Castillo, Martin Villarama Jr., and Jose Perez.

Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr., Antonio Eduardo Nachura, Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Arturo Brion, and Jose Mendoza were on official leave, while Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno was on leave during the voting.

Meantime, the Comelec will rely on picture images once the integrity of ballots and ballot boxes has been compromised. – Edu Punay, Sheila Crisostomo