'PCOS machines better than manual system'

MANILA, Philippines - The precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has opted to buy and use for the 2013 election, in spite of its reported flaws, are still better than going back to the old manual system, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said yesterday.

After a hearing conducted by the Senate yesterday on the conduct of elections, Enrile said he supports the decision of the Comelec to purchase some 80,000 PCOS machines from Smartmatic International Corp. for P1.8 billion.

“At least we have tried it. We have elected a president, vice president, 12 senators, many governors, provincial executives, municipal executives. If there were errors somewhere, nothing is perfect in this world, that does not go against the utility of the machine. We can correct it and we can economize money instead of having another one. Who knows, if we buy another one, it will be worse,” Enrile said.

He said there would always be opposition to almost all projects or transactions in a democracy.

But between the issues raised against the PCOS machines and the option of going back to the manual system of counting and tallying votes, Enrile said he would choose the automated system.

He stressed that the manual system used in previous elections is prone to manipulation and fraud.

Various critics of the PCOS, including former Comelec chairman Christian Monsod, have objected to the use of the PCOS machines because of supposed glitches in the system.

Monsod said he does not understand why the Comelec wants to buy machines that are non-compliant to the requirements set by the Automated Election System Law.

“It was admitted by the Chairman (Sixto Brillantes) that voter verification will not be built in the machine because it would be too expensive. But that is one of the safeguards,” he said.

He said there are many issues about the system that have yet to be addressed, and it was not clear if these would already be sorted out in time for the 2013 mid-term elections.

Smartmatic president for Asia Pacific Cesar Flores said the PCOS was able to show accurate results for the 2010 elections in spite of the short period of time given to them to set up the system.

He said critics of the system actually caused the delay in the implementation of the system when it filed a case before the Supreme Court.

However, in spite of the delays, Flores said the Comelec and Smartmatic were able to give its all to provide the country with the best election available.

“There are things that can be improved, not all those things have to do with PCOS machines, unfortunately they tend to put all the blame on Smartmartic and the PCOS machines,” Flores said.

He said many problems have to do with human error rather than on the technical side.

“It’s important that we know what really can be improved through technology, what can be improved through better project management and better education and other areas that are not technology related,” he said.

Flores said the Comelec, when it availed of its option to buy the PCOS machines, asked for Smartmatic to include new features, improvements and enhancements.