MANILA, Philippines – The law requiring the automated election system’s Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) to certify the AES at least three months before election day should be amended, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said on Wednesday, March 5.
On the sidelines of a forum on transparency in the electoral process held by the Center for People Empowerment in Governance, Comelec Chairman George Garcia said that the law should be amended to take into account the “long process it takes” to certify the technology.
Even with the same automated system from 2010 to 2022 under Smartmatic, Garcia said that the certification was issued only days before election day.
“So something is really wrong with the period, as well as perhaps our procedure,” Garcia said in a mix of English and Filipino.
Republic Act No. 9369 or the law authorizing the Comelec to use an automated election system signed in 2007, requires that the TEC must “certify, through an established international certification entity….not later than three months before the date of the electoral exercise, categorically stating that the AES, including its hardware and software components, is operating properly, securely, and accurately.”
However, historically, the three-month deadline has not been followed. With this year’s elections on May 12, the deadline should have been February 12. This year’s elections will also be under a new provider, Miru Systems.
On February 24, Mountain Province Representative and House suffrage and electoral reforms committee chair Maximo Dalog Jr. wrote to the Comelec asking for updates on the certification of the 2025 AES and the schedule for the deposit of the source code in escrow with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
The Comelec wrote back two days later, explaining that that the TEC was not yet able to certify the AES. One main reason is that the 2025 elections includes an additional automated system — the online voting and counting system (OVCS) for overseas voting. For the first time, the Comelec is implementing internet voting for overseas Filipinos.
Another is the “unbundling” of the Secure Electronic Transmission Services with the provider of the full automation system with transparency audit. “These features, which [aim] for better voting experience and transparency, necessitated a longer time for certification as we await the certification of the separate components,” the Comelec’s letter said.
Garcia said on Wednesday that the commission hopes for the AES certification before the end of March.
“Hindi kasi namin puwede pong i-deposit ‘yung dalawang source code na hindi namin hinihintay ‘yung para naman po sa internet voting. Kasi kinakailangan ‘yung tatlong ‘yan ay ma-integrate, mapagsama-sama, iisa ang pag-iisip, iisa ang gagawin, kinakailangan coordinated,” said Garcia.
(We cannot deposit the two source codes without the other one for internet voting. Those three need to be integrated, so that the machine thinking and actions are coordinated.) – Rappler.com