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CenPEG
Fellows brief House members on automated poll
Fellows
of the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) conducted
a briefing on the automated election system (AES) for members of
the House of Representative on Sept. 8, 2009. The briefing, sponsored
by the House Minority Office and Rep. Neri Colmenares of Bayan Muna
Party-list, covered the technical and management issues as well
as the 30 vulnerabilities and proposed safeguards of the AES.
Giving
the briefing were CenPEG Fellows Dr. Pablo Manalastas, who is also
the policy institute’s IT consultant, and Prof. Rosa Castillo.
They were joined by newly-appointed Commission on Elections (Comelec)
Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal and Ric Bahague of the Computer
Professionals’ Union (CPU).
Commissioner
Larrazabal discussed the Comelec’s implementation plan on
the election automation process and its pre-election and election
day logistical strategies. Dr. Manalastas and Castillo, on the other
hand, presented the technical (guarding the integrity of the election
softwares and programs from possible manipulation), management (logistical)
vulnerabilities of the AES system, and the proposed safeguards for
each, based on an intensive study and observation of CenPEG on the
automated election for 2010.
Bahague
compared the technology that will be used for the Philippines’
election in 2010, with that used in other countries.
Questions
raised by the legislators and their staffs on attendance included
on the digital signature; how the new election technology will be
implemented: the logistical plans of the Comelec, possible problems
on voting day, voters’ education, internal rigging, and safeguards.
The
forum concluded with a note that automated election will not address
the problem of widespread election cheating and fraud and that “human
intervention” will still be the primary cause of cheating
in next year’s election. All representatives present in the
forum also agreed on the importance of voters’ education on
the 2010 automated election.
CenPEG
has held similar briefings to the media, politicians, party-list
groups, major business and church organizations, student groups
and campus press, foreign chambers of commerce, poll watchers, social
advocates, and civic and mass organizations on the AES.
The
Joint Congressional Committee on the automated elections is looking
into Comelec’s preparations but has yet to convene to determine
the poll body’s current management capabilities.
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