Ban Smartmatic from any more contracts in Phl – Col. Odoño

Retired colonel Leonardo Odoño will have five of seven Comelec commissioners impeached. He won’t stop there. He will get Venezuelan automated election system supplier Smartmatic removed.

Smartmatic supplied AES hard and software for the 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019 and 2022 elections. Comelec paid nearly P45 billion to lease-purchase, warehouse and accessorize precinct count optical scanners (PCOS). Controversy marred all balloting, Odoño recalls:

• In 2010 Filipino info-technologists were unable to review PCOS source codes, in breach of the 2008 AES Law. Days before election day, Smartmatic replaced 76,000 secure-digital and as many backup cards, programs also unreviewed.

• In 2013 Ateneo University Mathematics Prof. Felix Muga, PhD, questioned the improbable 60-30-10 senatorial trend. From start to finish, administration bets consistently got 60 percent of votes; opposition, 30 percent; independents, 10 percent.

• In 2016 defeated VP bet Ferdinand Marcos Jr. alleged fraudulent Smartmatic count. AES Law author Sen. Richard Gordon had to ask the Supreme Court to compel Comelec-Smartmatic to issue voter receipts.

• In 2019 Smartmatic project manager Marlon Garcia tampered with the candidates’ names on the Transparency Server. All opposition senatorial candidates lost.

• In 2022 computer expert Nelson Celis (now commissioner) denounced six AES law violations. Digital signatures of precinct inspectors-teachers were used only in Metro Manila, Cebu City and Davao City. Comelec released required legal certifications two days after E-Day instead of 90 days prior.

Unexplained was the 20 million-plus vote barrage within the first hour of counting. Also the 68:32 presidential trend from start to finish. As well, the VP getting more votes than the president, and each getting more votes than the top senatorial winners. All unprecedented.

Former information-communications technology secretary Eliseo Rio has discovered proofs of fraud. One, the receipt by the Transparency Server of votes from a secret private IP address 192.168.0.2. Two, receipt of precinct results ahead of printing, which should come first.

Comelec Chairman George Garcia hails that balloting as the best ever. Yet for 2025 he is shifting to direct recording electronic (DRE) or touchscreen system.

Describing DRE to be “as opaque as PCOS vote counting machines,” info-technologists prefer hybrid of manual precinct counting and electronic transmission to canvassing.

DRE was Smartmatic’s original product which it used in the 2008 election in half of the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao. Smartmatic warned then that PCOS counts were unreliable so could spark civil unrest.

But in Comelec’s 2009 AES bidding, Smartmatic sold the PCOS. It won despite its battery burning during product demo and failure to prove ownership of hard/software. Weeks before the 2013 election, a Delaware court case revealed that Dominion of Canada owned PCOS’s software that Smartmatic was selling.

Excerpted is the last part of Odoño’s July 23 presentation to the Global Transparency and Transformation Advocates Network:

“I foresee delay in Congress processing our impeachment complaint. Congress has to take up the Executive’s budget proposal as priority legislative agenda.

“Kawatans in Congress could delay proceedings. Tongressmen will examine the budget in detail – not on need and reasonableness of projects, but from which they can get the most commissions.

“My personal mission is not quite done with the impeachment complaint in process. On my table are tasks to complement GTTAN’s mission to prevent subversion of Filipino’s electoral will.

“These include a knowledgeable friend’s info of ‘what Smartmatic and incoming First Lady did last summer’ – to ensure Mr. Marcos’ victory, their celebration less than two hours from close of voting on May 9, 2022, and to secure Smartmatic’s contract for the 2025 election.

“My agenda. I will:

“(a) Petition Comelec, supplemental to TNT Trio’s initiative, to disqualify Smartmatic from any contract in this country. I’ll provide proof that Comelec’s Terms of Reference for the 2025 automated election system make Smartmatic the only qualified bidder.

“Evidence: 2016 video of Mr. Marcos, after losing to VP Robredo, saying ‘Smartmatic isn’t selling election but dayaan systems.’

“(b) Petition our Bureau of Immigration to declare Smartmatic officials persona non grata and ban them from the country.

“(c) Announce to the world that Smartmatic is banned from doing business in the Philippines, for other countries to follow suit.

“(d) Reiterate to Senators Hontiveros and Pimentel to initiate a Senate investigation of 2022 election anomalies.

“I’m 80; General Rio, 78. Hindi po ba naaantig ang damdamin ng bayan na kaming dalawang matatanda na, na hindi na sana nakikilahok sa political issues at maglagi na lang sa aming comfort zones sa konting panahon naming natitira, ay nakikibaka at nangunguna pa?

“Nasaan ang ating kabataan na sana’y nasa frontline ng laban para sa bayan at kanilang kinabukasan?

“VP Leni, nasaan po kayo? Kayo ang nakikita naming makakatulong nang malaki sa laban na ito. Hinihintay namin kayo, matagal na.

“Kayo sa Oposisyon, mga talunan dahil dinaya, bakit ayaw niyo kami samahan sa laban para sa katotohanan at katarungan?

“Mga kababayan, mag-People Power tayo kung sakaling ayaw bumitaw sa kapangyarihan ang mga hindi naman natin ibinoto. Magpakatatag tayo; huwag mangamba.

“People power is more powerful than people in power.

“At sa mga Pilipinong naninirahan sa ibang bansa pero patuloy ang masidhing pagmamahal sa ating bayan, na kapiling natin sa forum na ito in spirit if not in person at handang tumulong sa ating laban sa subversion of Filipinos’ electoral will, tulad nu’ng 2022: maraming salamat at pagpalain kayo ng Maykapal.”

More than 125 retired generals and colonels, including former AFP chiefs and service commanders, signed last March a “Statement of Support for Colonel Odoño”:

• Initial signatories: https://tinyurl.com/Gotcha-March-29-2023

• Excerpts: https://tinyurl.com/Gotcha-March-31-2023

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