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With Due Respect

Manual and electronic count discrepancies


By Artemio V. Panganiban
Philippine Daily Inquirer
10:34 pm | Saturday, June 15th, 2013 8 40 18

The discrepancies, variances or differences (or whatever the Commission on Elections wants to call them) between the manual count and the electronic count made by the PCOS machines present formidable basic problems which I think must be solved by definitive legislation. Voters intent. These counting variances cannot be avoided as long as the rules for manual counting are used in auditing or checking the electronic count. The basic rule in manual counting is to discern and give effect to the voters intent. Thus, anything on the ballot that may show this intent should be respected. For example, this intent can be shown by a check mark outside the ovals. Thus, a ballot with such mark is to be credited during a manual count in favor of the candidate whose name is printed nearest the mark. Sometimes, instead of shading the oval, a voter may even write down the name of the preferred candidate on the ballot. Again, in a manual count, this could arguably show the voters intent in favor of that candidate. On the other hand, machines count ballots according to a program or command uploaded into them. Being machines, they do not think like humans in determining the intent of the voter. They merely count mechanically as programmed. In the above examples in which the oval is not shaded but check-marked or handwritten with the candidates names, the machines would not count the vote because they are not programmed to do so. Thus, a variance or discrepancy would arise, which may not necessarily be fraudulent. The question nonetheless remains: Which count the manual or the electronicshould be used in determining the winner? Early jurisprudence. In an early case, Loong v Comelec (April 14, 1999), our Supreme Court said that the manual count should prevail. By way of background, this case arose from the first experiment on automated elections conducted during the May 11, 1998, polls in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). Like the 2010 and 2013 elections, the 1998 ARMM experiment involved the use of preprinted ballots with ovals that were to be shaded by the voters. However, the counting was not done at the precincts. Instead, the ballots were brought by the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) to the voting centers where machines counted them electronically. The results of the electronic count were preserved in a diskette; later, the entries were consolidated and used to proclaim the winners. One day after the polls, on May 12, 1998, while the automated counting was being conducted at the voting center, three election watchers noted that in the precinct where they voted, their candidate obtained a zero vote, which they protested was impossible. After examining the ballots, technicians determined that the counting problem was caused by the erroneous printing of the ballotsthe ovals had not been properly aligned to the names of the candidates. The local Comelec office stopped the automated counting in the entire province of Sulu, not just in the precinct concerned. All the ballots were thereafter brought to the Comelec head office in Manila where the poll body ordered the simultaneous electronic and manual counting of all the ballots for the entire province of Sulu, not just from the precinct and municipality where the error was found. Nonetheless, only a manual count was actually conducted. No electronic count was in fact made. SC ruling and dissent. Upholding the manual count and denying the losing candidates prayer for a special election, the Supreme Court ruled that [t]he correctness of the manual count cannot be doubted The naked eyes could see the check marks opposite the big ovals, thereby implying that the voters intent, the basic rule in manual counts, should prevail. I dissented on the ground that the rules for manual counting provided by the Omnibus Election Code and by the Comelec assumed that the ballots were to be filled out by the handwritten entries of th e candidates names, not by the mere shading of the preprinted ovals. The erroneous use of these manual rules necessarily produced results not reflective of the automated count. In short, the ARMM experiment taught us that rules on how to manually read automated ballots should be carefully studied and enacted into law by Congress. Using the rules on manual counting will always show a discrepancy or variance between the manual and machine results. Unless these rules are enacted soon, losers in closely contested automated elections will always demand a manual recount. *** Servant leadership. Awesome and spirit-filled was the gathering of the leaders of the various parishes and lay organizations in the Archdiocese of Manila held yesterday and the day before (June 15 and 14) at the huge SMX Convention Center in Pasay City. Led by Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle and attended by 1,000 devotees, the conference discussed the embodiment of servant leadership with Jesus Christ as role model. The speakers included Bis hop Pablo Virgilio David, Bishop

Broderick Pabillo, Msgr. Gerry Santos, Sr. Maria Consolata Manding, and Catholic lay leaders Barbara de los Reyes, Francisco Padilla, Selene Yu and yours truly. Congratulations to the Serviam Charismatic Community for sponsoring this meeting, supported by Metrobank Foundation, Megaworld Foundation, Phinma Foundation, BPI, SM, Resorts World, PSBank, Unilab, Inquirer, Inquirer.net, Manila Bulletin, Philippine Star, Veritas, dzRH, dzIQ, etc. Mabuhay po kayong lahat. *** Comments to chiefjusticepanganiban@hotmail.com

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Nothing to show for P1.8-B expenditure


Philippine Daily Inquirer
9:08 pm | Friday, June 21st, 2013 17 21 1

The Commission on Elections spent P1.8 billion of government money for the controversial PCOS machines to improve the electoral process. And all it has to show for it is more controversy. It appears that the recent elections were no different from the previous ones. There are doubts about the integrity of the results. There were delays in the transmission of results. And a lot of questions about the elections are up in the air, left unanswered. If the Comelec, courtesy of Filipino taxpayers, is given about P2 billion to improve something, it better make the improvement. Instead, the same questions and problems cropped up, only in different forms. The Comelec had a good, long enough time to resolve the issues but it did not act accordingly. Certainly explanations were provided, but the fact remains: the results are murky and the country spent P1.8 billion for this. Almost P2 billion! Yes, P1.8 billion to improve something that didnt improve. MELANIE SANCHEZ, melanie_sanchez1992@yahoo.com

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Brillantes tantrums
Philippine Daily Inquirer
10:44 pm | Friday, May 24th, 2013 42 445 378

So he finally admitted it. The number of precinct count optical scan machines that had experienced transmission problems, said Commission on Elections Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. last Thursday, wasnt in the hundreds but in the thousands18,000, or 24-25 percent of the around 78,000 machines deployed in the midterm elections. Interestingly, that number roughly dovetailed with the figure cited by poll watchdog Automated Election System Watch in its statement on May 18, which noted that four days after this years electio n, 18,187 clustered precincts or 23 percent of the total number failed to transmit election returns, affecting if not potentially disenfranchising 8.6 million votes. That distressingly high number of machine failures is a far cry from the assurance confidently given by the Comelec on Election Day: that the PCOS failure rate would be at most 2 percent, or about 1,560 out of the 78,000 machines a rate that the poll body declared was quite reasonable and acceptable. Earlier, Brillantes also had to admit that some compact flash cards containing the encrypted election results that were transmitted to Comelec servers were damaged or corrupted. Asked how these could have been destroyed, his answer was: Sinasawsaw sa tubig, nilulublub sa tinta, scratches, hindi ko alam. Hindi ko alam. I dont know. There, in a nutshell, is the biggest stumbling block to any effort at ascertaining whether the midterm elections were indeed clean, fair, honest and transparent, or the product of some pervasive sophisticated skullduggery that only the most tech-savvy among us can grasp. Brillantes flippant, dismissive, often hostile attitude

toward any attempt by concerned citizens or civic groups to inquire into the manner and outcome of the elections has been most exasperating, if not downright dangerous. Anyone trying to delve deeper into the conduct of the Comelec, or to independently appraise the performance of the automated system it had imposed on the public at enormous cost and despite widespread doubt about its efficacy, has been met with Brillantes by-now-patented hissy fit. The man has threatened to file charges against critics, is purveying stories of a conspiracy to smear and bring down the Comelec, and has swatted away all questions about poll irregularities as coming from sore losers, or, in the case of former Comelec commissioner and IT expert Gus Lagman, as mere sour grapes by someone with alleged vested interests in an alternate technology that the poll body had rejected in favor of Smartmatics PCOS machines. It may be that Brillantes is right in his suspicionsbut so far none of his answers addresses the main issues. If the machines had conked out by the thousands, how did it happen, and what could the effect have been on the final election tallies? If the CF cards were deliberately corrupted or destroyed through immersion in water or ink, who might have been responsible, and for whose benefit? Which part of the myriad problems the Comelec began encountering even before the close of polling precincts last May 13 pointed to fraud, to the systematic undermining of the systemand which part pointed to natural, explainable causes, if any (such as Brillantes complaints that signal problems by telecom firms were the chief cause of transmission delays, a charge the firms have denied)? Who knows? Instead of trying to find out, Brillantes has invariably chosen to go ballistic. Similarly, now that an Ateneo math professor has raised what looks like a 60-30-10 pattern in the election results, Brillantes response has been to describe the pattern as mere trending, with nothing unusual to it. He did add that the Comelec would look into the numbers. But, with no details or timetable to his promise, the assurance seemed more like an afterthought, lacking the conviction and the urgency one would expect from the nations chief election overseer. Brillantes needs no reminding that he swore to the task of making sure not only that every vote is counted, but also that no stone will be left unturned to get to the bottom of election fraud to punish the perpetrators, but more importantly, to understand how the deed was done, in order to prevent it from ever happening again. Throwing tantrums every time an inconvenient new question is asked about the elections that he said the Comelec was 99.99 percent ready for is certainly not the way to do it.

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PCOS critics: Put up better options or shut up altogether


9:43 pm | Friday, March 8th, 2013 060

Until and unless the critics of PCOS (precinct count optical scan) machines can prove that at least 10 ballots from the more than 35 million ballots cast and fed to the PCOS machines in the 2010 elections were erroneously or deliberately credited by the machines to a candidate other than the one voted for, then they should stop making wild speculations that the 2013 elections will be marred with inaccurate vote count or may cause failure of elections. The Commission on Elections has already spoken and fully guaranteed that the PCOS machines cannot be manipulated nor can anyone maneuver them and that all glitches experienced in the 2010 polls had already been corrected. If we cannot believe the Comelec, then who else can we trust with our electoral processes? Under Comelec Resolution No. 9640 dated Feb. 15, 2013, which sets the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) guidelines on the testing and sealing, voting, counting and transmission of results, the BEIs are mandated to test and seal the PCOS machines in their assigned precincts at least seven days before May 13, with notice to candidates and all political parties not later than May 1. This could be the most opportune time for critics of the PCOS to observe the machines operation or performance and there and then make an honest -to-goodness evaluation of their effectiveness and accuracy. The Supreme Court taught us the lesson that the Comelec, being the constitutional body mandated to enforce election laws, should be permitted to discharge its constitutional role without obstruction or molestation and should be accorded the greatest measure of presumption of regularity to its course of action to the end that it may achieve its designed place in the democratic fiber of our government. The Automated Election System (AES) Watch was merely speculating when it warned about a possible failure of election in 2013 due to a defective Smartmatic in the 2010 elections, alleging inaccuracy of the vote count and absence of digitally signed election returns. The AES Watch is, and should be, aware that not a single election protest involving the 2010 elections succeeded at the Comelec, precisely because the results of the physical count of the ballots (made during the revision and recount stage of the protest) tallied with the results transmitted by the PCOS machines to the various canvassing boards as stored in their respective compact flash (CF) cards.

The absence of the digital signatures on the election returns and the certificates of canvass is likewise not material in determining the accuracy of the vote count. These are merely formal defects which, as decided by the Supreme Court in various cases, will not affect the results of the election as they are purely ministerial and technical, by no means mandatory but a mere antecedent measure intended to authenticate the ballot. A contrary ruling would place a premium on official ineptness and make it possible for a small group of functionaries, by their negligenceor worse, their deliberate inactionto frustrate the will of the electorate. ROMULO B. MACALINTAL, election lawyer, Las Pias City

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A fabulous P300-M war chest


By Dr. Antonio J. Montalvan II
Philippine Daily Inquirer
9:50 pm | Sunday, February 24th, 2013 0 20 5

Have we progressed or have we degenerated in our conduct of elections? Voting and vote count have now gone automated, though belatedly. But that we can now determine victor and vanquished in less than a day is something not to crow about before the league of nations, many of which have been into this cutting edge generations ahead of us. But we are already there, to say the least. The Aquino administration has instituted a revamp of the voters list in central Mindanao, where the senatorial tailender used to be decided. That is progress; may the revamp be satisfactory enough to correct what had been a grave abuse of electoral will. But that we need to see in the long run. May it finally delete all fictitious names, flying voters and resurrected dead used in vote-padding that had, in past elections, been the last resort for fictitious winners. But there are other elements in our electoral exercise that even automation cannot address. Dynasticism is certainly not the least significant of them. What we see in the current senatorial lineups are only the tip of the iceberg. At the local level, it is more blatant. Which town or city does not have the wife or husband or son or daughter or mother or father or brother or sister to replace the outgoing incumbent? Even lolo and lola have joined the fray. We are not a dynasty; this is not succession but election; it is the people who decide should by now be a discarded run-of-the-mill answer. Dynasts must have better answers for an electorate that has grown conscious of its rights. It may take time for Filipino society to correct that flaw, for a flaw it truly is. The same family names and bloodlines in power already create, wittingly or not, an inherent limitation to those challenging members of political dynasties in power. Lets face it. Elections in the Philippines are not decided by votes but by the highest bidder. And the highest bidder is the one who holds the richest purse, who is no other than the holder of the public coffers. Despite the automation and PCOS machines, Philippine elections are not yet free. In our Manila-centric culture where the presidency and the senatorial elections are looked up with much awe and hence draw more government and media attention, we often forget that it is in local elections where the voter is largely disenfranchisedwhen he is led away from casting an honest ballot. The Commission on Elections has recently announced it will soon release a resolution that will address the crime of vote-buying. It is a fact that in local elections, vote-buying is still rampant. It is one age-old moral wrong that has not been corrected to this day. Until now no one has ever been jailed for it, says Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. It is even the deciding factor in elections for the Sangguniang Kabataan. Yes, we start our future leaders young in the ways of corruption. The Comelec must know that in local elections, talk of the highest bidder is neither both fable and gossip nor fantasy. It is being bandied about by local parties in a brazen display of political hubris. The strong arm of the Comelec must extend to the provinces, cities, municipalities and barangays. In local elections, vote-buying is so common, it is talked about matter-of-factly, but Manila up high does not get to hear it because the talk on the ground is drowned by the noise generated by its own power struggles, like an arrested Isko Moreno getting aggressive support from a clearly incoherent former president. It is silly. But the real pettiness lies in local

contests where petty tyrants are so often created election after election, and this the Comelec has failed to address. It is a moral wrong that our national system, ever fixated on Manila-based politics, overlooks. In the city where I vote, there is talk about a very huge war chest of a long-entrenched politician (15 years in power). But it did not seemingly emanate from malicious sources. One of Cagayan de Oro Mayor Vicente Emanos councilors in fact started the rumor when he revealed to an opposition councilor that their camp was awash with P300-million in campaign funds allegedly amassed from Tropical Storm Sendong donations. A campaign with that much in cash? The implications of vote-buying are staggering. Even before the cash gets distributed (and barangay chairs reportedly will be part of the distribution scheme and thus will benefit big from the largesse), think of how many voters are already being disenfranchised at this point. An informal survey conducted among persons-on-the-street as to who they will vote for generated the classic answer: It depends on who will give the higher amount. In such a scandalous situation, what can the Comelec do? Brillantes has promised that the resolution on vote-buying will come out 10 days before the May 13 elections. The PCOS machines may count correctly, but they can never identify which votes had been sold. But from where I vote, elections have always been decided this way, they say. When will this all end? I am asking this for the country, not just for my own hometowns parochial interest.

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Get Real

Accuracy, safeguards and transparency are compromised


By Solita Collas-Monsod
Philippine Daily Inquirer
11:54 pm | Friday, February 15th, 2013 52 583 508

As I write this, I have just finished taping an interview with James Jimenez of the Commission on Elections and Juana Change (aka Mae Paner) of the Anti-Epal Movement, which exuded good humor and bonhomie. Which is a rarity, not where Juana, but where the Comelec, is concerned. But for once, the Comelec seems to have done something right; whether or not it has ridden on the coattails of a movement that has captured the public imagination and has made politicians think twice about undertaking their usual campaign shenanigans, it doesnt matter. And therefore the Comelec is to be congratulated, even as the Anti-Epal Movement, led among others by Vince Lazatin, has demonstrated what people power can do. I sincerely hope that the next target will be political dynasties. But one must, albeit reluctantly, point out that keeping the trapo in line with respect to campaign posters and other materials is, in the context of elections, like concentrating on a couple of trees while ignoring that the entire forest is catching fire. By the entire forest catching fire, I mean the increasing possibility that our automated election system (AES) is about to implode. My university colleague, Rene Azurin, has writtenwith absolute clarity, using terms that allow computer illiterates like me to understandon various aspects of the topic, at least half a dozen times, in BusinessWorld. The Philippine IT community is almost unanimous in its opinion of what is wrong and what should be done about it, with several of its members going out of their way, as part of the AES Watch, to attend legislative hearings, not to mention bringing their case to the Supreme Court. But all have been ignored/rebuffed/stonewalled for their efforts, just as former Comelec Commissioner Gus Lagman was (except that Gus, the only IT-savvy commissioner, was also kicked out of the poll body, as the Reader will recall). Is it a case of the above personages generating their own excitement, and then panicking? One doubts it. These people are all responsible professionals/academics who have no axes to grind, no ulterior motives. Just love of country. So exactly what are they worried about? For one, there is the matter of the source code, the computer program which contains the complete set of instructions, arranged in a logical sequence, that the machine (in this case, the PCOS) is to follow in doing its jobi.e., read and count votes. A very important program, right? Which is why our automation law mandates that an established international certification entity certify it, categorically stating that the AES,

including its hardware and software components, is operating properly, securely, and accurately, in accordance with the provisions of this Act based, among others, on the following documented results: Once an AES technology is selected for implementation, the Commission shall promptly make the source code of that technology available and open to any interested political party or groups which may conduct their own review thereof. So whats wrong? Well, folks, it seems Smartmatic (from whom the Comelec has just bought the machines we used in 2010) no longer has the license to use the source code and other software in its machines. It turns out that Smartmatic is really a johnny-come-lately with respect to experience with PCOS machines, because prior to 2010, its only experience was with touch-screen (DRE) systems. The technology it used in 2010 was owned by Dominion Voting Systems, and Smartmatic was using it only under license which is in direct violation of a Comelec bidding rule in 2010 that software cannot be subcontracted. And this is only on top of the other problem with the source code: No one in the Philippines has been able to review it, whether in 2010 or now, to make sure that there are no malicious instructions which could change the results. Why is the review important? Because it will be the basis for the board of election inspectors in the precincts to determine whether or not the software in their machines had been tampered with. No review, no way to check for tampering. Then there is also the matter of the compact flash (CF) cards, of 2010 notoriety (when, five days before the elections, Smartmatic had to replace 76,000 CF cards after the PCOS machines had problems with them). That Smartmatic again won a negotiated contract to supply the CF cards this year is an insult, given what happened in 2010. But the real injury is that (again), the CF cards do not have the WORM (Write Once, Read Many) feature. Which means, folks, that they can be written on again and again, thus making them vulnerable to tampering (again). In short: Accuracy, safeguards against cheating, and even transparency are compromised in the 2013 elections. In spite (or maybe because) of an additional P5-10 billion in expenses (the Comelec was given another P4 billion recently, if one recalls). Will it at least be faster? Well, certainly, the 5-12 hours that used to be spent on precinct counting in manual voting will be saved. But hey, any savings in canvassing (where wholesale cheating takes place) time are actually in doubt: Only consider that in the 1998 manual elections, Joseph Estrada was proclaimed on May 29, and in the 2010 Smartmatic elections, Noynoy Aquino was proclaimed on June 9. Can we save ourselves from disaster? Certainly, say the experts, there are solutions. That is, if the Comelec can shake itself out of its hubris. But thats for another column.

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Troubling, frightening
Philippine Daily Inquirer
10:06 pm | Tuesday, February 5th, 2013 32 120 84

Its either PCOS (precinct count optical scan) machines or manual polls, says Commission on Elections Chair Sixto Brillantes, in his latest challenge to critics who continue to question the poll bodys capability to conduct automated elections this year. Brillantes had declared the mock elections the Comelec held last week in 20 voting centers in 10 areas nationwide a success, but many IT groups and citizen watchdogs are not mollified, citing the many troubling glitches and last-minute emergencies that marred the exercise. Brillantes flippant response, disingenuous at best and outrageous at worst, is guaranteed to further agitate anyone with a modicum of interest in seeing the country progress politically with automated polls that are honest, credible and foolproof. The argument, after all, has never been about technology versus manual counting, but whether the technology that the Comelec has procured for the 2013 elections, at great expense and with sky-high expectations, is indeed the right one. Bobby M. Tuazon, director for policy studies of the Center for People Empowerment in Governance, thinks otherwise. The Comelec will end up with a pirated technology if it uses Smartmatics PCOS voting system, he wrote in a recent opinion piece published in this paper. The reason: On May 23, 2012, the United -States-based Dominion Voting Systems, the real owner of the election technology, terminated a 2009 licensing agreement with Smartmatic. Thus, the Venezuelan companys access to the program systems ceased, making it unable to correct the program errors that it finally admitted early last year Late last Dec ember, the Comelec revised the election calendar because no source code (or program system) has been submitted for certification. Early last month, the poll body indicated that it

would use instead the program that was designed for the aborted 2011 elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. That fundamental flaw is but one of many that various IT experts and concerned observers have lobbed at the PCOS technology that the Comelec seems at baffling pains to stay loyal to, despite the doubts raised over its efficacy. The mock polls have only intensified those doubts, as persistent reports of breakdowns and glitches during the exercise belied Brillantes effort at dismissing such problems as minor ones. Minor? As observed during the mock elections, PCOS machines, for instance, had difficulty accepting ballots with some crumpling. That alone presents frightening possibilities. The ballots are for nationwide elections, and will thus contain a long list of names of candidates for local and national positions. Is it safe to expect the ballot to be in physically pristine condition after being handled by ordinary voters who may take their time ticking off the names of their candidates? But that is the ridiculous bar that the finicky PCOS machines seem to have set before these accept any ballot. Thats not the end of the ballot problem. Reportedly, it can only be fed into the machine when folded in a certain wayanother frilly requirement that guarantees delay and confusion come Election Day. Also, at a number of places during the mock polls, the designated board of election inspectors had difficulty inputting their pin codes, a problem the Comelec said could be easily addressed by replacing the machines. We have over 76,000 polling precincts but we have over 81,000 machines, so the excess machines will really be used as replacement units for contingency purposes, said Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez. But that begs the question: How fast can the Comelec replace those machines on Election Day? Pinpointing the areas nationwide that would experience machine breakdowns on the day itself is an impossible task, and relying on the logistically cumbersome measure of physically replacing computers once they conk out, while queues of voters grow ever longer outside, threatens to be a recipe for election failure, or at least the disenfranchisement of many voters. From any perspective, these are not minor problems; these strike at the very heart of the credibility of the automated election process. The machines have to work with such accuracy and reliability that, on Election Day, any glitches will be universally accepted as negligible. That is the bare minimum the public will accept from the Comelec and its favored technology. Anything less, and itll be chaos.

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Grandstanding is the name of the game


By Solita Collas-Monsod
Philippine Daily Inquirer
9:47 pm | Friday, June 29th, 2012 13 191 186

From various news reports, one gathers that the Senate wanted to see for itself whether the PCOS (Precinct Count Optical Scan) machines of Smartmaticwhich the Commission on Elections has been allowed to purchase in spite of the strong objections of independent election watchdogs and the IT community were indeed improved, in the sense that all the glitches (the other side calls them serious defects) have been addressed. And so Smartmatic was invited to the Senate, where a mock election was conducted, which would enable the senators to compare the PCOS count with a manual count. Smartmatic obliged, naturally, and brought a PCOS machine, whose count of the mock election votes indeed matched the manual count and was therefore judged 100percent accurate. The counting accuracy was obviously enough for some senators, particularly one of my favorites, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile (JPE). He was quoted as saying that he was confident the Smartmatic machines that would be used in the 2013 elections were ready and tamperproof, that cheating would be virtually impossible. How does he know? Apparently not just because of the results of the PCOS demonstration, but also because I asked people who are familiar with these machines and they said cheating is impossible. It will be an elaborate conspiracy if that happens. And as if to further reassure those still in doubt, Comelec Chair Sixto S. Brillantes (SSB) said he would create a special committee that would listen to (and hopefully address) concerns regarding the technology aspect of the equipment. Moreover, SSB assured all and sundry that Smartmatic would not be paid a single centavo until we have examined and tested each and every machine, which, he said, was what they were doing now.

It all sounds so very reassuring, doesnt it? Buttressed, as it were, by photographs that included PPCRV (Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting) Chair Tita de Villa, presumably to add even more credibility to the proceedings. I am not impressed. A closer scrutiny of the above-mentioned proceedings and statements does not inspire confidence. First, bringing a PCOS machine to demonstrate that it can count faster and as well as a manual count (as what was shown in the Senate hearing) is a world apart from testing the integrity of the machine (and of the system) and its ability to withstand hackingwhich can take place not necessarily in the counting at the precinct level, but in the transmission and consolidation of the results. If cheating in a manual system can take place at both retail and wholesale levels, cheating in an automated system can also take place at both retail and wholesale levelsand the demonstration in the Senate did nothing to reassure anybody that this was indeed prevented in the 2010 elections and will be prevented in the 2013 elections. And with only one machinepre-selected at thatbrought to the Senate to show how fast and accurate automated counting at the retail level is, there is no assurance that this machine is representative of the other 80,000 machines that the Comelec decided to buy. What could and should have been done was to choose at randomblindly, as it werefrom the warehouse (the selection being done not by Smartmatic but by, say, the Department of Science and Technology using statistical sampling methods). The chosen machines will then be brought to the Senate and used in the demonstration, so that their performance can be compared, not only in counting but in transmission and consolidation as well. Second, with all due respect to JPE, I think he should give the names of the people who are familiar with these machines, whose opinions he asked and accepted as gospel. And they should be invited to the Senate to give their testimony, so we are assured of their credibility and expertise. Surely the impeachment trial taught everybody the value of this process. Third, SSBs special committee idea loses its reassuring qualities when one is reminded that the Comelec already has a special committee that was formedby law, not just as SSBs brainchildto precisely discuss all these technology aspects. This is the Comelec Advisory Committee (CAC), chaired by the executive director of the Information and Technology Office of the DOST, with various members of the IT community, as well as election watchdogs. It is noteworthy that the CACs advice to the Comelec in the first place was NOT to use the Smartmatic PCOS machines, and that when the SSB Comelec disregarded the advice, tried to reduce the damage by recommending certain safeguards. The point is, if SSB could blithely ignore the recommendations of the CAC, which has legal standing, and for that matter, the recommendations of the only Comelec commissioner (Gus Lagman) with IT expertise, what do you think are the chances for the special committee? Fourth, SSBs not-a-single-centavo-will-be-paid battle cry also rings hollow (although compared to JPEs gung-ho, he is positively cynical) when juxtaposed with his insistence on Smartmatic, as well as with the news reports that Smartmatic is able to test 3,500 units a daycovering power source, LCD, CF card ports, thermal printer, scanning capacity UV sensor and modem transmission. An IT expert, whose name I will supply on request, e-mails that either they are using 450 technicians/testers a day, assuming that the testing takes one hour per machine (it will take 225 technicians at half an hour), or all that is being done is visual testing. Bottom line: Grandstanding seems to be the name of the game. With photo ops.

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P18,000
Philippine Daily Inquirer
10:37 pm | Thursday, June 27th, 2013 0 17 16

The national governments plan to encourage informal settlers in Metro Manila living near or atop esteros to relocate to resettlement areas by offering P18,000 in so-called rental subsidy has drawn a lot of criticism. Perhaps the worst thing that has been said of the expensive plan is that we do not even know if it will work. The floods that incapacitated parts of the National Capital Region with the onset of the rainy season have focused public attention on the state of the esteros, the choked waterways that crisscross Metro Manila like clogged arteries. While many factors help explain the perennial flooding, the occupation of the esteros may be the most visible cause.

The government estimates that some 20,000 families are living on or along these clogged esteros. The most important reason to resettle them is fundamental: Thousands of lives are at stake. The conditions in these clusters or informal communities are bad enough on dry days; they become life-threatening when the rains come and the floods form. You are looking at families living on top of the waterways and alongside waterways, President Aquinos spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said at a briefing last Monday. And so, come rainy season, come typhoon season, theres a danger of them being washed away. At other times, however, they will also be exposed to dengue, leptospirosis, and other diseases. So our main concern is to move them away from these danger zones. Theres no way that we can build a structure on the same site. Those are danger zones, they have to be relocated. Relocation will also allow the Department of Public Works and Highways to clean the esteros, to remove the manmade structures and detritus that block the natural passage of rainwater, even to dredge the waterways. All this will have a spillover effect, reducing the risk of flooding in other parts of the metropolis. The DPWH has identified eight priority waterways. A report from the Philippine News Agency listed the governments estimate of the number of families living in each of the eight, as follows: San Juan City, 4,217 families; Tripa de Gallina, 3,887; Tullahan, 3,683; Manggahan Floodway, 2,997; Maricaban Creek, 1,687; Pasig City, 1,484; Estero Maypajo, 1,415; and Sunog Apog Estero, 170 for a total of 19,540 families of informal settlers. Thus far, only about 4,000 families have agreed to be relocated. The news about the P18,000 rental subsidy was greeted by much wailing and gnashing of teeth on social media at this point in time a public sphere more accessible to the middle and upper classes. One common response on Twitter or Facebook can be summed up simply enough: Why are informal settlers, who occupy land that does not belong to them, being rewarded with a subsidy? Others have criticized the subsidy as inadequate. The Urban Poor Associates, a nongovernment organization helping many informal settlers, described the subsidy as a band-aid solutionthe amount is actually for a years worth of rental, which means only P1,500 per month. Just enough, the UPA said, to rent a room in an informal settlers colony. To be sure, no one in the government is saying that official assistance will be limited to the subsidy. Resettlement areas are being readied (though not enough to house all 20,000 families); ancillary support from the Department of Social Welfare and Development is in the pipeline (such as counseling services); and so on. But the reason many previous relocation efforts have failed is that the beneficiaries do not in fact see themselves as benefiting; there may be not enough jobs at the relocation site, or it may be too far from places of work, or there may be a serious lack of facilities or services or both. The families thus find themselves returning to Metro Manila again, where the jobs and the services are. What is the guarantee that the P18,000 that the government will provide each estero family will keep the family members in their new quarters? The plan calls for the rental subsidy to be distributed on a quarterly basis, supposedly allowing the government to periodically ensure that the families have not returned to the original esteros. Same difference: In between the periodic monitoring, what will prevent the families from returning to where the jobs and the services are?

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Unsettling
Philippine Daily Inquirer
10:55 pm | Wednesday, June 26th, 2013 15 37 13

The news that relatives of 14 victims of the gruesome Maguindanao massacre are ready to settle with the family of the principal accused is sobering. It alerts us to the financial and even security risks that many of the victims families face from day to day. And it reminds us, yet again, that the wheels of justice in the Philippines do grind exceedingly slow. What it does not do is seal the argument, as activist lawyer Harry Roque seems to suggest, that the Philippine government is legally required to offer compensation to the victims families. It also does not stop the multiple -murder trial in its tracks; only the civil liability of the accused in a criminal case can be waived in a settlement. To quote an emphatic Justice Secretary Leila de Lima: Any waiver of criminal liability is against public policy, hence, null and void. In other words, the trial of the Ampatuans and their coaccused, for the worst single crime in the Philippines since at least World War II, will continue.

All the same, any settlement will have serious consequences. While government lawyers have reacted to the news of a possible out-of-court deal by noting that an offer to settle from the accused could be read as an implied admission of guilt, no one can rule out the possibility that the credibility of the families and their witnesses (to use the term of one victims relative who said she would never agree to any form of settlement) may take a hit. That one settlement may lead to others, or result in further delays to an already lengthy trial, is also a real possibility. We must note that, according to the disclosures made by Roque, the private lawyer representing 17 families of media-worker victims, a total of 14 families (including four of his clients) were ready to negotiate a settlement, for the reported sum of P50 million. It did not come to pass, apparently for various (even conflicting) reasons. But just the idea that secret talks had taken place was enough to rattle the overlapping groups of victims kin, lawyers, supporters and observers closely monitoring the trial. Many of us can understand the pressures that the victims families are subjected to. Still unable to recover fully from their immense grief, caught in the whirlpool of legal and political concerns, trapped by worries about physical safety (some of the accused remain very powerful personalities in Maguindanao) and economic security (many of the victims were their familys breadwinners)they are in an untenable situation. In this context, the prospect of a settlement appears like a clean break, a chance to stop the world from turning and start again. The idea, proposed by Roque, that the government should provide the victims families with a special compensatio n, is actually not without appeal: They have been through a hellish three years and a half, with the end of the trial still not yet in sight; it would be a mark of simple decency on the part of the national government (though we believe not a legal obligation) to help provide substantially for them. At the same time, many of us can also understand the depth of De Limas anguish, when she texted reporters that it would be both legally and morally wrong for [the 14 victims families] to settle with those res ponsible for the most heinous crime in Philippine history. The butchering of the victims was so casually brutal, the attempt to bury the dead many of them still in their vehiclesso blithely careless, the sheer number of victims claimed in a single spasm of violence so shockingly high, that the country passed a turning point. It is not hyperbole to state that on Nov. 23, 2009, extreme violence was done to all of us. In other words, there are other victims, too. De Lima again: May I stress further that the Maguindanao massacre case is more than the private interests of the victims and their families, but one which is imbued with deep public interest. It cannot and should not be bargained away for any amount of money. Now that the prosecution phase of the trial is nearing its end, fears are rising that defense lawyers will use all possible delaying tactics. The Department of Justice must ensure that the governments lawyers will not countenance any delay. At the same time, the public must rediscover its sense of both urgency and outrage, and put pressure on the court.

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Gainers and losers


8:07 pm | Monday, June 24th, 2013 27 119 48

The peso weakened quite rapidly against the dollar in the past two weeks. After closing at a 17-month low of P43.80 to $1 last Thursday, the local currency hit its weakest since February 2011 the next day at P44.17 to $1. In contrast, it averaged P41.14 to $1 in April and P40.73 to $1 at the start of the year. The impact of a depreciating currency on the economy is varied: Some will benefit, others will suffer. The recent slide in the pesos value has revived the debate on whether a weak currency is beneficial or not to the Philippines. Proponents argue that a weak currency will boost a countrys exports and this, in turn, can le ad to economic prosperity. This actually worked well for China, which has kept the value of its renminbi artificially low to the consternation of its major trading partners in the developed world. However, China is successful in this because it has a huge manufacturing base from which to flood the global market with ultracheap products. The Philippines, on the other hand, has no manufacturing base to speak of. It imports nearly everything it needs, and a weak currency only makes these imports more expensive. Another favorite proposition is that a weak currency helps the beneficiaries of the more than 10 million overseas Filipino workers who send home billions of dollars a year. Money sent home by Filipinos abroad reached $2 billion in April, bringing the total for the first four months of 2013 to $7.7 billion. Converted to pesos, these remittances will

indeed be bigger if the peso weakens against the dollar. A depreciation of P1 in the exchange rate in a month easily translates to about P2 billion in additional peso purchasing power for OFW beneficiaries here. However, the Philippines being an import-dependent country, a weakening peso also increases the prices of basic items from toothpaste to canned goods to utilities like electricity and water. Transport costs also rise as imported oil and fuel products become more expensive in peso terms. With higher transport costs, everything being moved from the provinces to the metropolis, like vegetables and other foodstuff, will increase in price. At the end of the day, the rise in the peso value of these remittances due to the pesos depreciation will only be offset by the increase in the prices of basic goods and services that the OFW beneficiaries use daily. Only two months ago, economists and analysts were projecting the peso to strengthen to below P40 to $1. This led to complaints from exporters that they were losing markets for their products. With the reversal in the exchange rate trend, the peso is now threatening to weaken to P45 to $1. But a return to P56 to $1, as what happened in 2005, has been ruled out in the present situation. Given this scenario, it is well to remember that 70 percent of the economy is consumption-driven. While a weak peso will benefit exports (although this is arguable as many of these exports are made using mostly imported components, electronics being a good example), 70 percent of the economy will suffer in terms of higher prices of goods and services. The peso has fallen in value against the dollar not because the Philippine economy is weak. On the contrary, the Philippines has more than $80 billion in foreign exchange reserves and a vibrant consumer-led economy. Besides, other Asian currencies have also been weakening since May 22, when US Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke announced that the American monetary authority would scale back its bond-buying program and end its easy money policy. This signaled a prospective increase in US interest rates and, in the process, drawn funds back to the American economy. The current currency weakness is temporary. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas officials have said that the present volatility would even out after investors refocus on sound economic fundamentals. As BSP Assistant Governor Cyd TuaoAmador pointed out in a briefing last Friday: We think that when the market has finished digesting all these bits of news [on the US Feds move and Chinas slowing economy], it will concentrate on searching for fundamental stories that remain well anchored. This will include the Philippine growth story, where a strong economic expansion of 7.8 percent in the first quarter and a huge balance-of-payments surplus this year will support the peso. The central bank has also assured the market that monetary authorities have enough tools to cushion risks stemming from the currency weakness. We just have to believe this.

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Are PCOS machines aboveboard?


By Ricky Poca
Cebu Daily News
9:33 am | Tuesday, February 5th, 2013

The May 20 elections is fast approaching and the legitimacy of the government is on the line. To ensure credible and honest elections, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) plays a very crucial role. With the advent of the precinct count optical scan or PCOS machine, it was initially believed that the 2010 election results were honest and credible though certain provisions of the law were not seriously implemented by Comelec. Before we hold the May 2013 elections, the Comelec should reveal and submit the source code of the machines as provided for by the law. Another concern is for the PCOS machine to provide voters with a verified digital signature to prove that what we shade in the paper ballot is what registers in the machine. With suspicion raised about the integrity of the PCOS machine, the Comelec is duty bound to prove to the public that this machine can be trusted and cannot be hacked by unscrupulous computer experts as some sectors of our society fear. The concerns raised by columnist Bobit Avila can no longer be ignored. The Comelec should answer the queries raised by various sectors. Does the Comelec have technical personnel who can review the workings of PCOS machines? I beg the Comelec for transparencys sake to answer these legitimate queries. The Comelec should also explain why it was quick to resolve the disqualification case against Wakee Salud who wanted to run for mayor of Cordova town but is taking its sweet time in deciding the disqualification case filed against Jun Pe in Cebu City.

Is it true that one has to pay certain amount to prod the Comelec to resolve a case filed with the central office? Where then is the Daang Matuwid of President Benigno Aquino III? *** Last Friday I had the opportunity to visit Sacred Heart-Ateneo de Cebu. When I left the campus in Mandaue City, I noticed that the road going there has been destroyed in preparation for repairs. I was told the Mandaue city government was not informed by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) about the road activity that has inconvenienced commuters. Because of this lack of coordination, Mandaue City has not posted traffic enforcers or signages to guide motorists. This is typical behavior of the DPWH. Departments officials are inconsiderate and insensitive to local government officials. What is the status of road repair in the highway of the North Reclamation Area that was supposedly to be finished months ago? Until now the road cant be used yet because they have not fixed its surroundings. When can we use the newly repaired road? *** I am happy to see that columnist Bobby Nalzaro is back writing a column in Sun.Star. The newspapers top management had suspended him for a month. People will enjoy reading Nalzaro again, hopefully more courageous and bolder after the suspension. Nalzaro said that writing was just a privilege and therefore you may be stopped anytime from writing a column. But due process should be observed before one is suspended fr om writing. In any case, were happy hes back writing again. Nyor Bobby, welcome back!

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Theres no cheating PCOS machine, says Brillantes


By Tina G. Santos
Philippine Daily Inquirer
1:37 am | Friday, February 22nd, 2013 1 286 154

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Sixto Brillantes said the poll body has a prize on the table for anyone who can break into the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines and manipulate the results it would produce. I am challenging anyone who can hack into the PCOS machines. Maybe we can give them something [if they are successful], said Brillantes in an interview. The poll chief made the remark after being given the failing mark by the Automated Election System (AES) Watch concerning its preparations for the May elections. AES Watch, an umbrella coalition of about 40 organizations composed of information technology practitioners, academics from various disciplines and other professionals monitoring preparations for the mid-term elections, gave the Comelec a failing grade of 0.29, with 4 being the highest and 0 being the lowest. The PCOS machines cannot be manipulated, said Brillantes.

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Comelec: 300 PCOS machines broke down


By DJ Yap, Tarra Quismundo
Inquirer Bureaus
2:14 am | Tuesday, May 14th, 2013 1 436 12

Hours before the voting ended, the Commission on Elections had placed the number of counting machines that broke down and needed replacement Monday at between 200 and 300, or less than 1 percent of the total something that the head of the Comelecs service provider considered typical in any automated polls. What I see right now is consistent with what happens in any other country in the world. I mean you will have machines failing during Election Day, Smartmatic Asia pres ident Cesar Flores told reporters at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City, where the national canvassing of votes was to be held later Monday. The Comelec announced its suspension Monday night. In the Visayas, for instance, at least 270 precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines bogged down, delaying voting in many areas. But most were later fixed, reports reaching the Inquirer showed. Besides the PCOS machines bogging down, other hitches that marred the midterm polls included two sets of ballots getting switched between two precincts in Baguio City and Compostela Valley, vote-buying and sporadic cases of violence. In general, the election was OK. But certain reports have been blown out of proportion, Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes told a briefing at the PICC. The nature of hardware He was reacting to a flurry of complaints from the public and the media on Election Day, particularly about malfunctioning PCOS machines that led to long waits at certain polling places. Flores said most of the failures would likely to have happened on the testing and sealing of the PCOS machines. Any hardware will fail. I guarantee you, if we buy 78,000 iPhones, we will have to send back to the store about a hundred to 200, and during the day, another hundred will fail. Thats the nature of hardware and IT, he said. But he conceded that a lot more was at stake with any machine failure during an election. In regular life, it wouldnt affect you because you will get a replacement within one or two days, but on Election Day, you have to have that replacement within one hour, he said. Standby counting machines Flores said the Comelec was doing a good job because it had over 2,000 machines [on standby] all over the country and was able to do replacements. He noted that the Comelec had a facility called the National Support Center, which would let the agency know in real time what was going on and take appropriate steps to fix problems. But Dr. Giovanni Tapang of Kontra Daya said at a press conference Monday morning that a lot of voters went home, opting not to vote because of the delay caused by the PCOS machines. In Metro Manila, for example, PCOS machine failures such as shutdowns, rejected ballots, back-up memory loss, etc. were reported in precincts in the cities of Caloocan, Makati, Manila, Pasig, Marikina, Paraaque and Quezon. Cutting ballots Tapang noted that election officers had to resort to measures like cutting ballots to make sure that they fit into the PCOS machine, rebooting the machines or resorting to manual voting and feeding the ballots later into another machine. He said that such problems were expected because the machines did not undergo the necessary testing, especially the transmission process. Fast, credible results Saying the public should instead focus on the thousands that worked, Flores assured the electorate of fast and credible election results, noting that he only encountered such skepticism over automated polls in the Philippines. Asked whether he faced as much skepticism about the automated electoral system in other countries, Flores said: No. Its only here. While visiting the command center of an election watchdog in Manila, Flores said similar technical problems were seen in other countries, including the United States, Brazil, India, Belgium and Venezuela, that used Smartmatics technology. He said 350 PCOS machines, or 0.6 percent of the total, had to be replaced during Election Day in 2010, still below the expected average one to two percent replacement rate recorded in other countries. As of 11:30 on Monday, Brillantes said, fewer than 100 PCOS machines had been reported to have malfunctioned. He was pleased with the experience of President Aquino with the PCOS machine. He made only one attempt and it was done. His statement was that the PCOS machine was an improved machine. Why? In 2010 he waited two hours before the PCOS machine accepted his ballot. Now, he waited only five seconds, Brillantes said. He predicted the voter turnout to be normal at 70 percent. There are small incidents ongoing all over the country. There are reports of oversized ballots. We confirmed one in Bukidnon. They are not being accepted. We instructed them to cut off the sides, he said. Wrong delivery Brillantes confirmed at least one case of misdelivery of ballots between a precinct in Compostela Valley in Mindanao and another in Baguio City in northern Luzon, rendering voters in the precincts unable to cast their votes, as theres no way we can exchange them within the day. But this involves only one particular precinct and therefore it should not affect the elections in both Compostela and Baguio Cityunless the votes in Baguio and Compostela are so close that one particular precinct could adversely affect the results, he said.

The Task Force Poll Watch Makabayan-Cordillera (TFPWM) led a petition urging the Comelec to conduct special elections in Barangay (village) Lualhati in Baguio. The polling precincts 0378A, 0378B, 0380A, 0381A at Rizal Elementary School, which have 638 voters, received the wrong ballots. The voters were mad at the Board of Election Inspectors, said Angela Malicdem, a voter from Barangay Lualhati. Disenfranchised voters In a statement, TFPWM said there were 638 registered voters in the barangay that would be bound to be disenfranchised if the request for special elections would not be granted. Tacloban City election officer Karin Cajipo also said that 26 official ballots intended for Cabanatuan were inadvertently sent to Tacloban. Brillantes said the Comelec had not declared any failure of elections anywhere in the country in spite of some local reports claiming so and in spite of reports of violence in places like Maguindanao. Heart attack Across southern Luzon, elections were generally peaceful except for a few cases of malfunctioning PCOS machines, brief power interruptions, long queues in a few polling precincts and two voters who died of a heart attack while voting. Except for some glitches in PCOS machines and widespread vote -buying, the election in Bicol was generally orderly, said Brig. Gen Felix Castro, member of the Regional Election Monitoring Center. Maj. Angelo de Guzman of the Armys Task Group Bicol reported that as of 10 a.m., there had been 34 defective PCOS machines out of the total of 5,539 machines in the region. Malfunctioning PCOS machines were also reported in Batangas (41), Laguna (2) and Marinduque (1). Senior Insp. Joel Laraya, Batangas police information officer, also said that only 41 out of 2,030 PCOS machines for Batangas malfunctioned. In Palawan, at least four malfunctioning PCOS machines were reported in El Nido, Coron and various areas of the province. Two voters suffered a heart attack while casting their votes in Batangas and Marinduque. In Benguet, lack of pens slowed down the voting process in Barangay Poblacion in Kibungan town, forcing voters to queue for at least two hours. Flooding in Hagonoy In Bulacan, residents in the villages of Mercado, Sto. Rosario and Sta. Cruz in Hagonoy town waded through flooded streets to reach their precincts on Monday. In Mt. Province, voters braved the rains to reach Kilong Elementary School in Sagada town. When they reached their precinct, they learned that the memory card for the transmission of the results was defective. In Pangasinan, an early morning downpour failed to stop Pangasinan voters from going to polling places, forming long queues even before the opening of their precincts at 7 a.m. But the excitement turned to restlessness when in many precincts voting did not start due to malfunctioning PCOS machines. We had lots of problems with the PCOS machines but most were technical and we have done something about it, said Marino Salas, provincial election supervisor. In Dagupan City, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting reported that three PCOS machines malfunctioned in three of five cluster precincts at the Doa Victoria Zarate Elementary School. In Nueva Ecija, 32 PCOS machines in 13 towns and cities in Nueva Ecija encountered problems as of noon Monday, police reports said. Many voters in the cities of Cabanatuan and Palayan complained that their names were not on the voters lists. More PCOS problems In La Union, malfunctioning PCOS machines almost ruined the polls in key towns, according to officials there. Machines in Sto. Tomas town would not work so election supervisors collected accomplished ballots in a ballot box instead, Philippine Information Agency reports said. PCOS problems were also reported in Bacnotan town and San Fernando City. Problems in malfunctioning PCSO machines were also reported in Isabela and the Central Luzon provinces of Bataan, Pampanga, Aurora. In Cagayan de Oro City, voters in Barangay Nazareth had to wait for hours as a number of PCOS machines conked out as soon as voting started on Monday morning. Elsewhere in Mindanao, the same problem with the PCOS machines happened. At Bucana Elementary School in Davao City, some voters went home before noontime after desperately searching and failing to find their names on the master list in the precincts where they used to vote. Crutches One of the oldest voters at Shamrock Elementary School in Laoag City who showed up on crutches was Exaltacion Natividad, 89. I cant remember how many presidents I have already voted for. I hope to live u ntil the next presidential elections in 2016, Natividad, who was accompanied by her granddaughter, said. Natividad and other senior citizens, including persons with disabilities, were given preference in voting.

Saada Pano, 45, went home without casting her vote because she could no longer find her name in her old precinct.Reports from Julie M. Aurelio and Sunshine Blanco, trainee in Manila; Desiree Caluza, Frank Cimatu, Maurice Malanes, Vincent Cabreza, Villamor Visaya Jr. and Cristina Arzadon, Inquirer Northern Luzon; Tonette Orejas, Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Anselmo Roque, Cesar Villa, Jhoanna Marie Buenaobra and Jun Malig, Inquirer Central Luzon; Mar Arguelles, Juan Escandor Jr., Shiena Barrameda, Fernan Gianan, Maricar Cinco, Romulo Ponte, Delfin T. Mallari Jr., Marrah Lesaba, Jerome Balinton, Madonna T. Virola, Jofel Lancion, Gerald Querubin, Redempto Anda, Janna Golod, Joy Oyardo, Aycel Narvaez, Christian Taduran, Loen Gonzales and Dyna Apatin, Inquirer Southern Luzon; Nestor Burgos Jr., Joey Gabieta, Carla Gomez, Jhunnex Napallacan, Felipe Celino, Carmel Matus, Jani Arnaiz, Karen Bermejo, Alex V. Pal, Jennifer Allegado and Eden Cidro, Inquirer Visayas; and Germelina Lacorte, Bobby Lagsa, Cai Panlilio, Dennis Jay Santos, Frinston Lim, Inquirer Mindanao

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