MANILA, Philippines (15 March 2012) - IT'S final. After weeks of dilly dallying, the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) formally decided to exercise the "option to purchase" precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines from 2010 automation vendor Smartmatic. These will be used in the 2013 national and local elections.
MANILA, Philippines – The CommissiononElections(Comelec) will develop its own canvassing and consolidation system for automated 2013 mid-term polls as part of a five-year program that it will put in place under the Aquino administration.
Comelec Commissioner Augusto Lagman said the agency intends to tap “Filipino-developed” technology for the canvassing and consolidation of ballots when it holds the 2013 polls.
“We like Filipino-developed technology to be used. We want the Comelec to be more involved in the implementation of election and so one very important aspect is to upgrade the information technology (IT) competence of the in-house personnel,” Lagman said.
Under the Comelec Strategic Plan 2011-2016 (Comstrat), thepollbodywill “enhance the IT capability of Comelec to support the conduct of modernized, efficient, transparent and credible elections and election adjudication.”
The poll body intends to strengthen the capability of election personnel for information and communication technology. This will be done by hiring IT experts and by submitting personnel from the main and field offices to IT proficiency training.
Comstrat serves as the blueprint of Comelec’s efforts to modernize, reform and redeem the integrity of the agency.
“One very important step is to upgrade the IT competence of the in-house personnel. That’s number one in our list,” said Lagman
“We are lining up a list of training courses that they (employees) would undergo so that they could upgrade their (IT) competence and capability,” he added.
Lagman, however, clarified that their initial plan will be to develop their own “back-end” system but not the “front-end” yet.
He noted that the back-end is composed of the consolidation and canvassing part while the front-end are the voting, counting and transmission.
“(It is) because canvassing and consolidation does not change no matter what front-end system we adopt. Whether it is Optical Mark Reader, Precinct Count Optical Scan, Direct Recording Electronic, even manual… no matter what front-end we use, we’ll all use the same canvassing and consolidation system,” explained Lagman, who was an IT expert prior to his appointment to the commission.
Lagman noted that canvassing and consolidation – the “back-end” aspect of the election – “do not change no matter what technology for front-end system we adopt.”
“Whether it is optical mark reader (OMR), precinct count optical scan (PCOS) and direct recording electronic (DRE). No matter what (front-end) system we use, even manual, we’ll all use the same canvassing and consolidation system,” he said, referring to technologies that were leased by the Comelec for use in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in 2008 and in the May 2010 presidential
“We’d like the Comelec to develop that part of the system. And we want to own it because it can be used from one election to the other election. It’s the Comelec which will master the running part of that,” Lagman maintained.
Members of the Alliance of Commission on Elections Employees in Service (ACES) on Wednesday welcomed the appointment of veteran IT expert Augusto "Gus" Lagman as the new Comelec commissioner.
“Though the ACES earlier hoped for an insider, Mr. Lagman’s appointment to the seven-member collegial body is certainly welcome news," ACES vice president for internal affairs Mac Ramirez said in a statement Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, Malacañangannouncedthat Lagman will be replacing retired poll commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer, whose term ended last February.
Ramirez said that Lagman's IT knowledge will be of "tremendous use" for the Comelec while it gears up for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) elections in August.
“We hope, however, Lagman wouldn’t turn-tail on his advocacy for transparency and credibility of the automated elections in the country now that he is inside the agency he helped keep in check for several years already," he said.
He likewise said he hopes the newly appointed Comelec official will also champion the welfare of the more than 6,000 Comelec rank and file employees nationwide.
“We urge him to also join us in our fight for job security, better working conditions, decent wages and in our democratic right to organize and negotiate with management concerning our welfare," Ramirez said.- Kimberly Jane Tan/KBK, GMA News
