Sen. Richard Gordon on Tuesday said a syndicate in the Commission on Elections is blocking attempts to automate and computerize the electoral process in the country. Gordon, chairman of the Senate Committee on Electoral Reforms, said he will subpoena all COMELEC officials, including newly-installed Sen. Richard Gordon on Tuesday said a syndicate in the Commission on Elections is blocking attempts to automate and computerize the electoral process in the country.

Gordon, chairman of the Senate Committee on Electoral Reforms, said he will subpoena all COMELEC officials, including newly-installed poll chief Jose Melo, to attend a committee hearing on the poll body's failure to automate the elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao this August.

He said the investigation will attempt to uncover poll officials who are blocking proposals to automate the elections. "It's time that the COMELEC answer to the people. It's time that the COMELEC explain to the people why they have so much money, [but] they cannot implement [the Automation Law] that was filed in 1997," Gordon said.

The senator made the statement after learning that the COMELEC will not be able to push through with the planned automation of the ARMM polls scheduled in August.
 
The poll body said there were no qualified bidders to supply the Optical Media Reader and the Direct Recording System that will be used for the two-mode automated election in the ARMM.

Gordon rejected the COMELEC's statement and said a group of "unscrupulous people in the commission" were blocking the poll automation.

"I think the reason they don't like it is: How many papers and ink the government buy for manual elections?" the senator said.

"Kung mabilis ang bilangan, mawawala ang kita ng ilan (If the counting is fast, some people will lose their racket)."

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr., meanwhile, said that "dagdag-bawas" (vote padding-shaving) will again dictate the results of the elections in the ARMM if it is not automated.

Pimentel said the COMELEC should spend more time in pushing for the automation of the ARMM elections because it will serve as a dry-run for the computerization of the 2010 presidential election.

The COMELEC started the bidding process last March after Department of Budget and Management issued a special allotment release order, giving the poll body the go-signal to spend P867 million for the two-mode automation of the ARMM polls.

COMELEC spokesman James Jimenez said that two types of machines will be used for the elections, including a touch screen computer for voting and an automated counting machine.

Jimenez said the COMELEC is hopeful that vote rigging tactics will be totally eradicated by using the automated poll machines.

Electoral exercises in the ARMM have been marred by massive poll cheating and violence in the past.

Jimenez said Filipino voters will be able to use automated poll machines in the 2010 presidential elections if the ARMM polls are successful.

The COMELEC spokesman had also assured that the body has put up measures to assure that the bidding process for the ARMM automated polls will not be muddled by corruption.