Statement of the Majority Leader on the looming 2010 manual elections

"It would be very unfortunate if the Commission on Elections (Comelec) would return to manual counting simply because the winner in the bidding for automated election backed out. We would be going back to the old, out-dated and incredibly fraud-prone system of counting which we have seen each election.

"Let us support the Comelec's bid to modernize and automate our polls. Any criticism of the automated program is nothing more than exaggerated and unfounded.

"These are counting machines and therefore ballots will still be used and in cases where the machines breakdown then we can count the ballots manually.

"Let us open our horizons and leave to the past the possibility of "dagdag bawas" and ballot snatching.

"Let us move forward with the system that will ensure credibility to our elections.

"Let us automate our polls."