Comelec denies rigging 2022 elections

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday disputed the allegations of former information and technology secretary Eliseo Rio that the results of the May 2022 presidential elections were rigged and illegally came from just one private IP (internet protocol) address.

Comelec Chairman George Garcia admitted that the poll body used one IP address for the 20,300 modems that were used to transmit election results.

“But there was nothing illegal about it. It does not matter if the IP have the same address. What is important is that the transmitted election results are accurate,” Garcia said in English and Filipino during the Kapihan sa Manila Bay media forum.

He pointed out that what was important was the results tallied, adding the “law does not require the Comelec to have a different IP address for each modem.”

Rio said the bulk of election results from precincts in Metro Manila, Cavite and Batangas came from only one IP address – 192.168.0.2.

“Transmission logs show that most election returns received by the transparency server were pre-loaded by a secret gateway with IP address 192.168.02,” he said.

Garcia, however, said the Comelec owned that IP address.

He belied allegations that there was an “intermediary” that blocked the transmission of election results from the polling precincts.

“Those who have doubts can check the audit logs,” he said. “But the best evidence to prove that there was no irregularity are the ballots.”

According to Garcia, all the modems were tested and certified prior to the 2022 elections.

He said election watchdogs, including the National Movement for Free Elections, were present during the testing and aware that only one IP address was used.

Garcia said the random manual audit showed 99.99 percent accuracy of the 2022 presidential election.

Meanwhile, the Comelec is planning to start the procurement process for the new automated election system to be used in the May 2025 midterm polls.

Garcia said the public bidding for the Fully Automated System with Transparency Audit and Count or FASTrAC is expected to begin by September.