Pimentel: IT experts should observe PCOS repairs

Senator Koko Pimentel and Comelec spokesperson Atty James Jimenez during the walk through inside the Comelec warehouse in Cabuyao Laguna, Friday. INQUIRER PHOTO/JOAN BONDOC

CABUYAO CITY, Philippines—For the sake of transparency, Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to allow other Filipino IT experts and groups familiar with automated elections to observe how technology provider Smartmatic was checking and repairing the 80,000 voting machines to be used in the 2016 balloting.

Pimentel, who chairs the joint congressional oversight committee on the automated election system, made the suggestion yesterday after he and members of the media were given a walk-through at the Comelec warehouse here, where the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines were undergoing diagnostic testing and repair.

“I hope the Comelec will (also) open up the procedure…to Filipino technicians who may be interested in seeing and knowing the details,” the senator said.

“The details of the report generated by the diagnostic testing should also be shown to interested groups, particularly those with technical capability, all in the name of transparency,” he added.

Acting Comelec chair Christian Robert Lim said the election body “support(s) the call of the senator for greater transparency…(and) will accommodate other requests from Filipino technicians.”

At least 100 Smartmatic technicians have been tasked to diagnose 80,000 voting machines while being supervised and monitored by 25 IT experts from Comelec.

The diagnostic tests, expected to take up to five months, were being performed on 10 vital parts of the PCOS machines, namely, the memory, compact flash, EE Prom, thermal printer, LCD screen, clock, power, scanner, modem port and battery port.

During the walk-through, Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez explained that all 80,000 voting machines will undergo diagnostic testing, with units that failed the procedure to be “quarantined” either for further repair or replacement.

“So far, 135 PCOS machines out of the 1,456 units checked since Wednesday have been placed under quarantine, and will undergo the necessary repairs once the diagnostics of all 80,000 PCOS machines had been completed,” he said.

Despite criticisms from various sectors, the Comelec awarded to Smartmatic the P268.8-million contract that covered the diagnostics and repair of the PCOS machines in January this year, just days before the retirement of then Comelec chair Sixto Brillantes Jr.