‘Review of PCOS source code is part of the law’—Ex-Comelec commissioner

MANILA, Philippines—Former Commission on Elections commissioner Augusto Lagman said Tuesday the act of reviewing the source code of Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines is stated in the law, and the failure to review it will deny interested parties the chance to ascertain that the machines counted the votes correctly.

“Hindi natin alam kung tama ang pagbibilang, kung may kalokohan o wala. Hindi natin malalaman. Yun ang problema kaya nga inilagay yan sa batas sa dahilang kailangang malaman natin kung maayos ang source code (We don’t know if the counting is accurate, if there’s an anomaly or none. We will never know. That’s the problem that’s why we put it in law because we need to know if the source code will be fixed,” Lagman said in an interview with Radyo Inquirer 990AM.

Source code is the programming software of the PCOS machines that will perform the counting, canvassing and transmission of votes for the upcoming mid-term elections.

Reports had it that Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes said there is not enough time to review the source code of PCOS machines as it is already “too late and too close to the elections.”

“So kung kandidato ka at natalo ka, hindi mo alam kung malinis ang pagkatalo sa ‘yo, o dahil may gumalaw nung source code na ‘yon (So if you’re a candidate and you lose, you’ll never know if you really lose because the source code was tampered) ,” Lagman said.

For the full interview, listen to the attached audio clip from Radyo Inquirer 990AM.