MANILA, Philippines - Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Jose Armando Melo conceded on Tuesday that the ongoing power crisis could hurt the security of the May 10 automated elections.

Speaking at the sidelines of a joint hearing of the committees of suffrage and oversight of the House of Representatives, Melo said that while the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines have batteries that could run for 16 hours, any power interruption could lay to question the security of the machines themselves.

Comelec officials revealed at the hearing that the PCOS machines will be deployed to the precincts 3 days before the elections.

Melo and other Comelec officials, however, downplayed the possibility of the PCOS machines being tampered, reiterating the security features for each machine.

The same officials also said that in cases of breakdown, some 5,000 spare machines will be deployed. They, however, emphasized that these spare PCOS machines will only become operational once they are tested and verified.

Mindoro Oriental Rep. Amelita Villarosa asked the Comelec to deploy some of these spare PCOS machines to some far-flung islands that may take hours to reach by boat as a precautionary measure.

Current procedure dictates that these spare machines will only be deployed once they are tested and verified after the need arises. They will not be sealed like the regular PCOS machines.

The appeal was made during the joint hearing where congressmen were allowed to sample, use and scrutinize a PCOS machine brought by Comelec and Smartmatic-TIM.

'Comfort levels are up'

House suffrage committee chair Teodoro Locsin, for his part, said that after seeing the technology, as well as the tight security at the PCOS warehouse in Cabuyao, Laguna and the National Printing Office where the ballots are being printed, “comfort levels were raised tremendously.”

Locsin even mockingly advised those out to rig the elections to instead try just buying votes because that would be easier than attempting to rig the machines.

He, however, cautioned against vote buying because “voters don’t like to stay bought. They take the money and vote your conscience.”

Locsin doesn’t see any possible hitches or national breakdown. He feels that the P11 billion budget for the automated elections was worth it.

He said there can be no electronic Garci. “Anybody who claims he is a Garci is a liar.”

On a more serious note, Locsin says any form of cheating will have to be done pre-balloting, as in the case of padded voters’ lists.

He cited a case in his home constituency of Makati City, where a loser in the last barangay election came up with a list of voters who were not residents in their area. When that happens, he said it’s up to people to challenge the questionable voters.

For this though, Locsin said the solution may lie in biometrically registering voters.

Lack of signal, deliveries still a problem

Melo, for his part, said some padded voters’ lists may not really be a result of fraud, but of some voters failing to cancel their old registration after moving to another constituency

Melo added all the equipment needed for the automation are already here, except for the ballots, which will all be printed by end of April. He doesn't entertain the idea of failure of elections.

He, however, said that the only remaining problem of the Comelec now is deploying all of these election paraphernalia.

Meanwhile, House oversight committee chair Danilo Suarez said that his remaining concern now is the 30% of the country where there is no mobile phone signal.

Suarez said votes in those areas will have to be transmitted through mobile satellite, making the matter a question of comfort level on the reliability of transmission.

Suarez stressed this 30% will have a big bearing on the results of the election where the front liners just enjoy a slim margin over each other.

Congress canvassing to delay process

Melo, meantime, estimated that it will take just 48 hours for the winners of the presidential elections to be known.

However, since it is Congress in joint session as the national board of canvassers that will proclaim the president-elect, it will take longer.

Cagayan de Oro rep. Rufus Rodriguez asked the Comelec to dedicate a server to Congress for the national board of canvassers to receive poll results.

Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal, however, said the Comelec will already dedicate a server for that purpose to the public.

Comelec executive director Jose Tolentino, meantime, revealed that based on his conversations with Senate officials, both the electronic and hard copies of the automated election results will be the basis of the proclamation of the national board of canvassers, as they can use one to counter check the validity of the results of the other.