PCOS: Best poll automation if...

The precinct count optical scanner is the best election technology. This, according to automation expert Dr. Douglas Jones of the University of Iowa. In a draft of his book, Towards Trustworthy Election Systems, Jones discusses various types of optical mark readers of paper ballots. Among them, he writes, the PCOS is tops. “The best current technology uses precinct count optical scanners to capture pixelized images of each ballot and then process the marks on that image,” he states in an advanced copy of his chapter on OMRs, sent to info-tech friends in Manila.

Jones is not referring to the PCOS model SAES 1800 that Barbadian firm Smartmatic is supplying the Comelec. That old technology was last widely used in 2008 in New York state and city, where poll officials have declared more than 50-percent machine failure. Rather, Jones prefers the newer technology of Avante Corp., which supplied the PCOS in half of the Muslim Autonomous Region in 2008. In that Mindanao balloting Smartmatic had supplied to the other half a different technology, the touch-screen direct recording election. In its brochure and website at the time, the firm belittled the PCOS as 12-percent inaccurate. In the Apr. 2009 bidding for the May 2010 automated elections, however, Avante and four other bidders were disqualified. Smartmatic remained the only one standing, despite the SAES 1800 battery pack short-circuiting on demo run.

Local IT and poll experts doubt the integrity of Smartmatic’s PCOS. This is because Comelec and its supplier ditched several security features. Among the discarded facets are the vote verifier that shows the voter on-screen that the machine is reading his ballot right, and the built-in readers of secret ultraviolet marks on the ballot. Further, Comelec and Smartmatic changed the ballot box from transparent to opaque, and removed the electronic signature of precinct inspectors before transmitting tallies to canvassing centers. There was no source code review and disclosure of an international certifying agency of the SAES 1800’s performance — both in violation of the automation law. Comelec rules further cast doubt on the automation process. Like, election returns cannot be the subject of pre-proclamation protests, only illegal composition of Boards of Canvassers or illegal proceedings of the BOC. Too, its sampling for the random manual audit of the automated count is too small. Worst of all, the Comelec seems preoccupied with rackets instead of preparing for automation. In recent months it has awarded P4 billion in contracts, most without bidding. Sixty two percent went to nine companies that have been cornering Comelec deals for years.

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In 2005 the Metro Manila Development Authority tried to stop Trackworks from using the MRT-3 line for outdoor advertising. The ad concessionaire sued all the way to the Supreme Court and got a favorable verdict. The Court ruled that when the government awarded the MRT-3 line to Metro Rail Transit Corp. Ltd., it gave the contractor the right to develop commercial spaces and obtain advertising income from these. The Court also noted that MRTCL later assigned its rights to MRT Development Corp. And MRT Devco in turn contracted Trackworks as ad solicitor.

The MRT Devco-Trackworks marriage has soured, though. The former is demanding payment of P367 million obligations as of yearend 2009. The latter in turn sued to stop MRT Devco from kicking it out and finding a new ad partner.

The lower court denied the plea for injunction. Still, Trackworks refuses to vacate the MRT-3 line, on grounds that the court had ordered a stay in the proceedings pending arbitration. MRT Devco insists on the other hand that what the court meant was a postponement of the case, not the exercise of its rights.

And the fight goes on.

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Noynoy Aquino vows, if elected President, to scrap shady midnight deals and appointments of Gloria Arroyo. That job starts with reviewing the documents. Meaning, Noynoy should demand to see them. Anyone who refuses to show papers can only be hiding sleaze.

Funding for one midnight expense was internal to the admin. The Legacy Campaign consisted of media and outdoor ads bandying Arroyo’s supposed accomplishments. Malacañang seeded the project with a few million pesos. Palace aide Conrado Limcaoco then went around asking heads of government corporations and agencies to pitch in. Being all presidential appointees, they complied. Besides, it wasn’t their money but Juan dela Cruz’s. Even bosses of government-administered mutual funds gave millions of pesos.

One of the most visible — and publicly irritating — results came from the Metro Manila Development Authority. It illegally diverted public funds to plaster pedestrian overpasses with giant tarps: “Thank you, President Arroyo, for erecting this.”

The message backfired though. Commuters asked why the admin was only now claiming credit for old infra works, then reminded fellows that it was they who paid for the overpasses.

Still Noynoy’s job remains: he must direct the agencies to make an accounting of the wasteful expenses, then sue the malefactors.

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 “Beggars live on the handout of others; the rich live on the handout of the world. God disdains handouts; He gives Himself.” Shafts of Light, Fr. Guido Arguelles, SJ

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