If machines fail, teachers not ready for manual count

By Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao, TJ Burgonio (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Link: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20100507-268519/If-machines-fail-teachers-not-ready-for-manual-count

MANILA, Philippines—Teachers manning precincts on Election Day will be at a loss on what to do in case the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines still do not function properly.

The teachers are not prepared for manual counting, Abelardo Brutas, secretary general of the Teachers in the Philippine Public Sector (TOPPS, said.

Brutas said one of the hindrances to manual voting is the clustering of precincts. A clustered precinct could have up to a thousand voters.

Manual elections would only be possible if the Commission on Elections (Comelec) restores the original number of precincts, which is quite impossible at this time, he said.

“Definitely, we cannot handle the clustered precincts, where we have to deal with about a thousand voters per precinct,” Brutas said.

Voting machines fail 76,000 memory cards to be replaced

By Michael Lim Ubac, Tarra Quismundo, Kristine L. Alave (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Link: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20100505-268133/Voting-machines-fail

MANILA, Philippines—Now, it can be told officially. The tests produced weird results.

This sent embarrassed officials of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and its partner, Smartmatic-TIM, scrambling to save the historic computerized balloting on May 10 by recalling 76,000 compact flash (CF) cards that are in the heart of the counting machines.

“We didn’t expect this to come out, but we are responding on time,” Cesar Flores, spokesperson for Smartmatic-TIM, at a nationally televised news conference said.

Flores blamed the glitches, which first surfaced in two precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines last month at the start of advance overseas voting in Hong Kong, on “human error.”

“We are taking all measures to remedy this,” Flores said, just five days before the May 10 national and local elections.

“We are optimistic that there will be no failure of elections,” said Commissioner Rene Sarmiento. “We are taking all measures to remedy this.”

AFP on red alert in preparation for May 10 polls

By Alexis Romero (The Philippine Star)
Link: http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=571133&publicationSubCategoryId=63


MANILA, Philippines - The military will be placed on red alert starting today as part of security preparations for the May 10 elections.

Col. Ricardo Nepomuceno, spokesman for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP)–Task Force HOPE (Honest, Orderly and Peaceful Elections), said the red alert status will be implemented until May 20 to allow the military to monitor the security situation in the field.

“The red alert will start at 8 a.m. It will be nationwide. We will start the manning of our (HOPE) operations center and that is the signal for us to start implementing our security operations,” Nepomuceno said.

A red alert means that all the military personnel should be readily available for deployment anytime. Such alert level would also entail the cancellation of all leaves to ensure adequate manpower.

CBCP organizing nine-day novena for clean polls

By Evelyn Macairan (The Philippine Star)
Link: http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=570448&publicationSubCategoryId=63

MANILA, Philippines - Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Media Office director Monsignor Pedro Quitorio III said they are organizing a nine-day novena for clean, honest, orderly and peaceful elections.

Quitorio said they are finalizing plans to hold the novena either at the chapel inside the Archdiocese of Manila or at the Manila Cathedral.

The 12-hour novena will be held from May 3 to May 11, from noon until midnight.

“We believe that in all the social upheavals in our country, there is a role for divine intervention. So we think of holding a vigil for several hours everyday, organizing lay organizations that are near the Commission on Elections (Comelec),” Quitorio said.

They would ask bishops to participate in the novena and organize prayer vigils in their respective dioceses for the same intention.

This project is supported by CBCP president Tandag, Surigao del Sur Bishop Nereo Odchimar and Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales.

Comelec exec tagged in secrecy folder deal Lawyer says directive to suspend bidding defied

By Leila Salaverria (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Link: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20100426-266445/Comelec-exec-tagged-in-secrecy-folder-deal

MANILA, Philippines—The winning bidder in the scuttled purchase by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) of ballot secrecy folders bagged a contract in 2008 after an election executive allegedly defied a directive of the poll body to postpone the bidding, a Comelec official said.

Lawyer Melchor Magdamo, who is assigned to the office of Comelec Chair Jose Melo, made the statement in an affidavit he submitted to a panel investigating the earlier decision to buy from OTC Paper Supply 1.8 million ballot secrecy folders at P380 each, a deal worth nearly P700 million.

The secrecy folder deal has since been junked, but the poll body has decided to probe the circumstances leading to its decision to buy the “extravagant” folders.

OTC has disputed claims that the folders were overpriced and has contested the Comelec decision not to push through with the contract.

Comelec prepares for manual audit

By Mayen Jaymalin (The Philippine Star)
Link: http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=569882&publicationSubCategoryId=63

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is preparing for a random manual auditing of elections results, according to Henrietta de Villa, head of the poll body’s committee on random manual audit.

She said part of the plan is the deployment of an additional 3,500 public school teachers to ensure the accuracy of random manual auditing.

De Villa said the committee has recommended the creation of a special board of election inspectors to undertake the manual audit.

The Comelec has rejected calls for a parallel manual canvassing of poll results, saying it is no longer necessary since a random manual audit is enough to do the job.

Comelec: No national election results in 48 hours

By Leila B. Salaverria (Philippine Daily Inquirer)Link: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20100416-264509/Comelec-No-national-election-results--in-48-hours
MANILA, Philippines—In the automated elections on May 10, the mindset is that the winners would be known in a jiffy.

Well, not exactly.

Results will be posted pronto in real time as they are spewed out by a computing machine on a website, to be announced later, but these will be from each one of the 76,000 precincts nationwide.

You’ll have to do the addition yourself to know what’s up.

After saying again and again that the results of the automated election system (AES)—meaning contest outcomes—will be known within 48 hours, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Thursday said for the first time that in fact this was unlikely to happen.

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez, speaking at a forum of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (Focap), said the poll body was not required to add up the results of the precinct voting or to provide a running tally on the website.

Comelec, NPD, DPWH intensify drive vs illegal campaign posters

 

By: Arlie O. Calalo
Link: http://www.tribune.net.ph/

Operatives of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), Northern Police District (NPD) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) have stepped up the drive against illegal propaganda materials by removing oversized posters and those that were posted in places other than the designated common poster areas.

Dismantled were those attached to trees in parks and electric posts all over the northern part of the metropolis, according to NPD director Chief Supt. Samuel Pagdilao Jr. who led last Monday morning representatives from Comelec and DPWH in implementing the Fair Election Law on illegally posted campaign materials.

Aside from Pagdilao, members of the Camanava (Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, Valenzuela) Joint Security Control Center led by its chairman lawyer Patrick Enaje and Comelec National Capital Region (NCR) director Mike Dioneda removed illegal campaign materials along Samson Road in Caloocan City.

PPCRV counsel’s office ransacked

‘Zombie voters’ evidence stolen in break-in

from The Daily Tribune

http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/20100306hed1.html

There appears to be a concerted effort from some groups to ensure that the Commission on Elections (Comelec)’s final but unpurged voters list that is filled with double, multiple and dead voters stays unpurged.

This was made evident after the law office of Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) counsel, Howard Calleja, was broken in Thursday in between 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday.

The only rooms that were “disturbed,” Calleja said, were the conference Room, the Evidence Room and Calleja’s personal office.

In a brief interview with Calleja yesterday, he told the Tribune that while doing a quick check, he realized that which was clearly missing and taken by the “thieves” was the list PPCRV had made of the double and multiple registrants, along with the dead voters.

The PPCRV list, a source told the Tribune was a product of painstaking work, matching the double and multiple and “zombie” voters with their claimed barangays which when submitted to the Comelec, would have made it easy for the poll body to purge these zombie voters.

There were also extrapolations made to cover the number of zombie voters, the sources said, adding that these studies and list of the PPCRV would not have to wait for the watchlist which the Comelec says it is preparing.