Chiz: Hope for best, expect worst in poll automation
MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Francis 'Chiz' Escudero on Friday said voters should hope for the best and expect the worst from the government's implementation of poll automation in this year's elections.
"I’m always hoping for the best, but we should always also plan and expect the worst,” Escudero said in an interview over radio dzMM.
The senator, a member of the joint congressional committee on automated polls, enumerated several reasons why people should expect the worst.
Aside from the delayed delivery of all the 82,200 Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines from Smartmatic-TIM’s factory in China, Escudero said he is worried over the transmission of votes from 82,000 polling precincts all over the country.
He said the Comelec has yet to assure the committee that the servers that would be placed at municipal and provincial levels and the main server in its central office in Intramuros, Manila would be able to take in all the data that will be simultaneously and electronically transmitted from at least 70,000 polling precincts.
Escudero said that in a previous committee hearing, Smartmatic-TIM said the votes will initially be captured by their server in the state of Florida in America, and then transmitted to the Comelec central office.
“They said they have a server in Florida. The results will be sent there before being sent to the Philippines,” he said.
He said that both the Comelec and Smartmatic-TIM have not made full disclosures about the protocol on the transmission from Florida to Manila.
Testing, lack of IT experts
Other problematic and gray areas, he said, are the testing of all the 82,200 machines and the fielding of 50,000 supposedly IT experts during the elections.
“Do we have that many IT experts in the Philippines?” Escudero said, adding that Smartmatic-TIM has not disclosed where the IT experts will be coming from.
He added that field tests of the PCOS machines should also be done in all polling precincts nationwide, citing problems on mobile network signals encountered during Wednesday and Friday’s testing.
He said Comelec and Smartmatic-TIM have not yet identified the other areas where there are weak mobile network signals.
Escudero added that the Comelec has also yet to draft a map of the possible areas where they are projecting a failure of automated elections or a failure of transmission of votes from the precincts to the central server.
“There really are so many loopholes in the Comelec’s preparation,” the senator said.
He declined to mention other possible problems, saying that it would take him hours to finish citing all the gray areas in the Comelec’s plan for the automated elections.
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Noncrucial issue
Since the PCOS machine has been tested successfully in capturing voters' choice of candidates, thus ensuring that our right to vote will be effectively protected, the reported kink in the transmission of vote results to Comelect data servers is an insignificant issue in the automation elections system (AES). It is very solvable.
Sen. Escudero should realise that such delay does not threatened in any manner the ballot's integrity, unlike in a manual system wherein dagdag-bawas, ballot-switching and other votes manipulation can easily take place.
Indeed, even a 24-hour delay in the electronic transmission of vote results is still a God-given blessing to this politically-cursed land of ours.
Alam nyo hwag nyong sisihin kung ganyan magsalita si Chiz
Opo si Chiz po ay pinaglihi sa computer robot kaya po iisa ang tono pag nagsasalita. Wala din po syang pinagkaiba kay panis Jun Lozada....CRY BABY din po sya. Please hwag paiyakin para naman maging maganda ang pananaw nya sa buhay. Sabi nga ng PAGASA today will be cloudy just like Chiz think of himself each day...MADILIM at puro THUNDER. HAYYSSSSSS yan ba ang tatakbong presidente sana...buti na lang naudlot kung hindi walang araw na sisikat sa Pinas at ang economy ng Pinas ay NEGATIVE paris ng makitid na utak ni Chiz. Tama lang yun pangalan nya CHIZ tapos balutan mo ng foil, ilagay sa kahon...keso na. HAYSSSSS ano ba yan nangyayari sa Pinas.
ganyan naman c chiz
i agree with you rachel,.. sana chiz will share his suggestions nalang kung ano ang maikakabuti at hindi nalang puro puna,.. nakakasawa na kasi,.. idol ko pa naman sya nuon,.. but now nagdududa na rin me if ano ba talaga ang pakay nya,..
Chiz is always a negative
Chiz is always a negative person, everytime his mouth opens you can only hear depressing and hopeless words. Why don't you use your talents to boost Filipino morale and to have trust in the Government? And do away with critizing attitude but instead suggests and recommend solutions to the problem. Because you were branded as an opposition, you don't have to be always in the opposition. Maybe you can use your right judgement, and not as a hostile politician.