Comelec exec opposes procurement of PCOS machines

MANILA, Philippines - Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Augusto Lagman is strongly opposing the procurement of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines used in the May 2010 polls, saying they may no longer be working by 2013.

Lagman said that even if the PCOS machines are sold to the poll body at a lower price by Smartmatic International Corp., the government would not save money.

He explained that the Comelec would actually have to spend more for maintaining a warehouse to keep the machines since elections here are held every three years.

“It is not advisable to buy the machines because it is certain that many of them would not be running three years later,” Lagman said.

“If we buy them, we become committed to it. So if there are new technologies that will emerge, it will be difficult to shift because we already bought (the machines),” he added.

Lagman, who is an information technology (IT) expert, also believes that Smartmatic’s PCOS machines were not able to respond positively to some requirements of the law, especially on the source code which had not been scrutinized by the IT community and civic groups.

Source code pertains to a set of numbers, alphabets and symbols which dictates the operations of the PCOS machines. If the system had been hacked, it would have been known through the source code.

But Lagman said the Comelec will likely use optical mark recognition, the technology used in PCOS because it has paper ballots.

The decision on which technology to use in the 2013 polls lies with the inter-agency Comelec Advisory Council (CAC) that was created under the Republic Act 9369 or the Poll Automation Law.

According to Lagman, Louie Casambre, executive director of the Department of Science and Technology-Information and Communication Technology Office, has been designated as CAC head.