MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) - Amid fears of a failure of elections due to cell phone signal jamming devices, telecommunication companies assured the House oversight committee inquiring into the progress of the automation of the 2010 elections that theoretically, the transmission of poll results cannot be jammed.

Atty. Froilan Castelo of Globe Telecom said his company will be providing a private network just for the elections so, in theory, the transmissions using their network cannot be jammed.

“We will establish private network for this purpose. So, jamming, in theory, cannot be done,” he said.

Quezon 3rd District Rep. Danilo Suarez, chairman of the oversight committee, said the special network promised by the telecommunications companies would be on a GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) bandwith.

Suarez said they were told that the GPRS bandwith, compared to the ones used during field tests by the Comelec, would provide "better, accurate and clearer signals."

He said the assurance gives members of the committee and probably the voters a certain "comfort level" amid fears of failure of transmission of votes as witnessed by people during the disrupted field tests.

Suarez said that aside from the better Internet access, telecommunication companies also assured that the service would be free of charge.

"Apparently, this is a noble service from providers to make sure that the automation will be somewhat successful," the congressman said.

Smartmatic Asia-Pacific region President Cesar Flores, meanwhile, assured lawmakers that the computerized elections cannot be rigged without leaving a trail.

“Data cannot be falsified. It would impossible to cheat without leaving a trail,” he said.

Flores also debunked fears they might be in collusion with those seeking to rig the polls.

“We are apolitical, and it's in our code of ethics not to engage in illegal activity. We are in election business. It's our intention to stay in business.... We will never accept [cheating],” he said.

Flores said that results of the May 10 polls will be known on the night of election day.

Commission on Elections (Comelec) law department chair Ferdinand Rafanan, for his part, said the source codes that will be used as a security feature in the automated system, will be available for review, but they cannot be replaced.

Rafanan said political parties will only be granted access to the source code for them to review if the system is accurate, but they will not be able to veto the source code.

5,000 signal jammers?

The Comelec earlier revealed they had been informed about the illegal shipment of at least 5,000 signal jammers to the Philippines.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez clarified that the report has not been verified. He said they are working with the Bureau of Customs and the National Bureau of Investigation to look into the report.

Signal jamming devices can disrupt network signals and the transmission of votes from the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines to their servers.

The Comelec said that they will be providing each precinct with 3 SIM cards to make sure that the transmission of votes will not be derailed.

The poll body had also assured that it has prepared a contingency plan, which includes the physical delivery of election results to all canvassing levels.

PCOS concerns

Suarez, meanwhile, said that congressmen are most concerned about the strong possibility of a failure of transmission of votes during elections. He added that they are also fearful of the possibility of a 30 percent failure of automated elections, as expected by the Comelec.

He said that the projection is based on 3 telecommunications companies -- Globe, Smart and Sun Cellular -- reach in terms of signal.

He said the Comelec is projecting that 30 percent of the total number of precincts nationwide may not have clear mobile network signals.

Suarez said that Smartmatic-TIM said they also have a back-up plan for the scenario, which is to allot 5,000 satellite antennas that would be used for electronic transmission of votes, particularly from very remote areas.

"But you and I know that SatCom (satellite communication) is not that reliable," he said.

He said that members of the committee have accepted the back-up plan as a "safety net" but they are also anticipating the possibility of a failure some PCOS machines during elections.

"There are 70,000 PCOS machines and we cannot avoid the possibility that some of them will encounter problems," he said.