SMARTMATIC Inc., the country’s major provider for the upcoming 2022 automated elections, has admitted data leak from its system but assured that it is not related to the polls, Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairperson Saidamen Pangarungan said Friday, April 1, 2022.
Pangarungan said that according to the firm's officials, the data leak concerns their internal organization and activities.
He said the firm already imposed sanctions and fired the involved employee.
“They emphasized to us that the data leak does not have anything to do with the elections in 2022,” he said.
He also said that they told Smartmatic that Comelec would not allow a repeat of the controversy.
"We told Smartmatic that the actions of their employee should not be repeated...they must make sure that there won't be a repeat of the incident," he said.
"I want to assure everyone, you read my lips, we will not allow anyone to undermine the people’s confidence in our electoral system. That is our pledge," said Pangarungan.
The Comelec earlier said it will review its contract with Smartmatic amid the reported security, breach which caught the attention of the lawmakers and prompted the conduct of a Senate investigation.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III said it was found during an executive session organized by the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee (JCOC) that a Smartmatic employee allowed a certain group to copy the contents of their company laptop.
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has launched an investigation on the alleged security breach in a bid to ensure clean and honest elections.
“Although, alam ng Smartmatic that we studied all possible courses of action that the Comelec will take against them if ever. So antayin na lang natin yung report ng NBI kasi yun ang magiging official na basehan ng action ng Comelec,” said Pangarungan. (With HDT/SunStar Philippines)