Comelec says report is still unverified

MANILA, Philippines (1st  UPDATE) - A Commission on Elections (Comelec) official said on Tuesday that reports of possible disruption of the May 10 poll results through jamming of telecommunication signals may just be part of a bigger plan to foil the May 10 automated elections.

"As a matter of prudence, we should accept the possibility that [a possible effort to delay the transmission of votes] is just a tip of the iceberg," Comelec spokesman James Jimenez told radio dzMM.

Jimenez was reacting to a suggested scenario of radio dzMM anchors Ted Failon and Pinky Webb that attempting to delay the transmission of counted votes by the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines through mobile network signals may be part of a bigger play to manipulate the results of the May 10 elections.

The Comelec spokesman said the possibility cannot be discounted, and the poll body is taking the matter very seriously.

However, he added that reports of people planning to use signal jammers may also be planning to just "undermine the confidence of the [automated elections] system."

"Right now, we are looking at the more obvious [reason]: to undermine the confidence of the system and to create confusion," he said, clarifying that what the signal jammers can do is only to delay the transmission of the results.

Still no confirmation

Jimenez, meanwhile, clarified that the Comelec has yet to confirm the veracity of reports that 5,000 units of signal jammers have been smuggled into the country.

"Even now, we have not verified that report," he said.

He added that the information was not supposed to leak to the media while they were still trying to confirm the reports. "We are still trying to verify if there was really a shipment and who is the consignee."

Jimenez said Monday that the Comelec is already working on counter-measures to prevent the signal jammers from disrupting the transmission of the votes to the main servers of the automated system.

Hard to identify jammers

Edgardo Cabarrios, chief of the National Telecommunications Commission's (NTC) common carriers authorization department, told ABS-CBN's Umagang Kay Ganda that they can trace a signal jammer if it is in use.

Cabarrios, however, said that it would be very hard to identify the person holding or using a signal jammer because of its size.

"It can be traced because it emits a signal, but it would be very hard to identify the person using it because it's too small," the NTC official said, adding that a signal jammer can even be smaller than the average size of a cellular phone.

Cabarrios said the NTC has not identified which stores are illegally selling signal jammers locally. He added that not a single jammer has been arrested.

He said that with the reports by ABS-CBN News about the signal jammers, the NTC's enforcement unit is now planning to conduct inspections in stores that could be illegally distributing signal jammers.

Cabarrios said that based on a law created in 1931, an individual who will be caught using, selling and smuggling signal jammers can be fined fees of P2,000 to P5,000 per unit and possible imprisonment.

Jammed PCOS testing?

Jimenez also told radio dzMM that the PCOS testing conducted in the Pateros-Taguig area last week could also have been disrupted by a signal jammer.

"I guess that it's a possibility," he said.

He added that it was unusual that the PCOS machines failed to transmit votes in Pateros and Taguig due to weak mobile network signals, but the people using cellular phones near the machines were able to use them.

"Last night, I was speaking to someone who knows these things. The jammer might have been a small device, close to the transmitter to jam it," he said.

Jimenez added that the Comelec is also looking into the possibility of controlling the number of people near the PCOS machines during transmission to avoid the possibility of jammers infiltrating the crowd inside polling precincts.

The Comelec spokesman said if jammers succeed in blocking GSM transmission, they can always use the Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN), where the transmission of votes are done via satellite.

He said that the Comelec has been advised that the BGAN signals are not affected by signal jammers.

Signal jammers bought as toys

Meanwhile, "Mr. Toni" (not his real name), a lawyer who owns a signal jammer, told dzMM's Failon and Webb in a separate interview that smugglers have been able to bring signal jamming equipment into the country.

The lawyer, who declined to be named, said his portable signal jammer was bought by a group of friends who attended a gadgets’ fare in Shenzhen, China in 2008.

He said portable signal jammers, smaller than a Blackberry phone, can easily be hidden and kept from customs authorities at the country's airports.

“Parang toy eh. They are being treated as toys sa ibang bansa (It looks like a toy. They are being treated as toys in other countries),” Mr. Toni said.

He said his friend bought signal jammers in China at around P5,000 each.

He added they decided to buy signal jammers after their friend’s car was blown up by a bomb triggered by a cellular phone.

Mr. Toni said his signal jammer, which he described as a small black box with a 2-and-a-half inch antenna, can turn off mobile phone signals within a 50-meter radius.

Bigger signal jammers, he said, are more powerful and can disrupt signals in a larger area.

The lawyer added that as far as he knows, several doctors and top hospitals in the country use signal jammers to protect sensitive equipment used in operating rooms and intensive care units.

He added that airlines also probably own signal jammers.

Unstoppable?

Mr. Toni added that signal jammers can be bought locally, in Metro Manila. He said people can easily buy a signal jammer in Quiapo’s Raon district where many electronic items are sold.

Asked if there is a counter-jammer, Mr. Toni said that technically there is none. He said a signal jammer can only be stopped by turning off the source of the transmission.

“Wala nang makaka-transmit [na resulta] sa Smartmatic. Mas lalong magkakagulo iyon,”  he said.

Mr. Toni, however, confirmed that signal jammers can only disrupt signals for 3G and 2G cellular phones.

He said satellite signals are beyond signal jammers' capability.