Saturday, January 27, 2007 Palace justifies belated enactment of poll automation law
MALACANANG on Friday defended President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's signing of the poll automation bill even if the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said it could no longer be implemented in the upcoming May elections.
Presidential political adviser Gabriel Claudio said "whether it is implemented this year or not, we at least have an updated automation law in place."
Claudio said Malacañang would have wanted an automated system in place as early as 2004 to ensure clean and honest elections but "it was caught in extended acrimonious debates in the Senate."
He said there was no undue delay in the signing of the bill because the enrolled copies had to be subjected to review by Malacañang's legal department and to consultations with concerned agencies. If the bill was not signed, it would have lapsed into law on February 10.
"The President signed the Automated Election System law in keeping with government's advocacy for clean, honest and credible elections," he said.
But he said "given the proximity of the bill's passage to the May elections, we will have to rely on the Comelec's judgment on the feasibility of implementing its provisions."
Chief presidential legal counsel Sergio Antonio Apostol, for his part, said the President did the right thing in signing the bill even if it could no longer be implemented. He said it could still be implemented in the next elections.
The newly signed Republic Act (RA) 9369 requires a fully-automated election system in the May 10, 2010. But first, it should be pilot-tested in at least two highly urbanized cities and two provinces each in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao in the 2007 elections.
Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. has said it is 'operationally impossible" to pilot-test the system in the upcoming elections due to lack of time.
The amount of P2.6 billion for the automated election system shall be charged against the Comelec's modernization fund for this year. This is aside from the P3 billion necessary to carry out the manual system which shall also be charged from the Comelec's budget.
RA 9369 provides that in places where an automated election system shall be adopted, at least a member of the Board of Election Inspectors shall be an information technology-capable person who shall be trained or certified by the science department.
An advisory council shall be created and headed by the chairman of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), a member each from the science and education departments and from the academe, three members representing ICT professional organizations, and two members from non-governmental electoral reform organizations.
The advisory council shall recommend the most appropriate and cost-effective technology to be applied in the automated elections at a specific point in time.
An independent technical evaluation committee was also created to determine the country's readiness to use an automated election system. The committee shall be chaired by a representative of the science department with an official each from the Comelec and CICT as members.
The law provides for a continuity plan in case of a systems breakdown that would result in a delay, obstruction or non-performance of the electoral process. The back up plan will be activated in the presence of representatives from political parties and the Comelec's citizens? arm.
RA 9369 provides for a random manual audit in one precinct per congressional district in each province and city. Any difference between the automated and manual count will result in the determination of the root cause and initiation of a manual count for those precincts affected by the computer or procedural error.
It states that six months before the actual automated polls, the Comelec shall undertake a widespread education and training program to educate the public about the new system.
Any person who violates the provisions of the law, except those found guilty of electoral sabotage, shall be imprisoned from eight years to one day to 12 years without possible parole, and perpetual disqualification from voting and holding public office.
Tampering with votes shall be considered as an electoral sabotage, which shall be punishable with life imprisonment. (JMR/Sunnex)
