Explanation of Sen. Chiz' no vote to automated election system

... nakapagka nag-automate tayo siguradong malinis na ang halalan at wala ng dayaan, ngunit Mr. President itong pinag-uusapang automation na naman sa pangalawang pagkakataon ay nagbibigay ng malagim at malungkot na alaala kaugnay sa karanasan natin sa Mega Pacific deal na pinawalang bisa ng Korte Suprema at nademanda ang ilang opisyal ng Comelec at ilang tanggapan ng pamahalaan. Mr. President to cite some parallelism and analogy of the Mega Pacific deal (which cost) us 1.3 billion, ito P11.3 billion. Yung Mega Pacific counting machine, ito counting machine din, yung Mega Pacific OMR, ito OMR variant din, nong tinesting ang Mega pacific palpak, ito nang tinesting sa ARMM hindi nakita na sagot sa lahat ng concern at problema at pumalpak sa ilang aspeto ayon sa pagpupulong at research na ginawa ng (inaudible). Yung Mega pacific 1,300 machines, ito 80,000 machines, yung Mega Pacific P3 milyon kada buwan ang bayad sa pagwe-warehouse, ito po 77 million. Yung Mega Pacific may full discretion ang bidder sa amount, security features at gayundin sa paraan ng pagpapatawag ng pagboto at tamang pagbibilang. Dito ganoon din, full discretion at bahala na si Batman, bahala na ang bidder kaugnay sa gagawing automation system. Yung Mega Pacific hindi tested bago binili, iaaward sa bidder nang hindi pa natetesting ni minsan yung eksaktong sistemang gagamitin. Sa Mega Pacific lahat ng flexibility binigay sa bidder at idedemanda na lang natin at ikukulong kung pumalpak siya, ngayon ganundin idemanda na lang at ikulong kung pumalpak ang kanilang sistema pero pagdating ng panahon nagawa na ang danyos sa ating bansa at sa ating kalayaan at demokrasya.

Just a few points, Mr. President in so far as the arguments raised a while ago by my colleagues, one Comelec does not even have terms of reference to inform us what we are exactly buying with P11.3 billion, sila nga ho mismo hindi nila alam ang eksaktong bibilhin nila papaano nila masasabi sa atin. Panagalawa nabanggit kanina ang India na mas malaki ang populasyon kaysa sa atin, ang India po hindi umaabot ng 300 tao o pangalan ang nakalagay sa balota upang pagpilian, ang pinagpipiliang puwesto lamang roon ay hindi lalagpas ng sampu kada halalan. Sinubukan natin ang automated election system sa Kongreso, sa Kamara de Representantes nga lang, automated electronic voting para sa 238 tao na ipapadala ng hindi lalayo sa 100 metro, dalawa't kalahating taon na po hindi pa napapatakbo ng maayos yung kanialng automated at electronic voting sa Kamara de Reperesentantes, ano pa kaya kung mula Aparri hanggang Jolo, ano pa kaya sa humigit kumulang na 40 milyong botante kung hindi pa natin napapatunayan sa tatlong daang botante. Mr. President, young honor, i am not against automation per se, i am in favor of automation at the concept and as a process, ang takot ko lang po ay simple, ang sabi nila automation of election equals clean election,ang tanong ko gaano tayo kasigurado na from manual cheating hindi tayo mapupunta sa automated cheating, mulas sa retail cheating hindi tayo mapupunta sa wholesale cheating.

Mr. President, your honor, how much our democracy really works? I agree with Sen. Biazon it is priceless, however, when we are talking about taxpayers' money, I am not willing to spend even a single peso, I am not willing to spend even a single centavo for a system which is not tested, for a system we cannot even describe or define or a system that we're not even sure to deliver a clean, honest and fair election.

And as a final point, Mr. President, allow me to put it in record the decision of the court in connection with the Mega Pacific deal which I hope will serve as a guide to the Commission on Elections to avoid the fateful of the Mega Pacific deal. From another perspective the Comelec's approach also fails to make sense granted that before the election day the software would still have to be customized to each precinct, municipality, city, district and so on. There was still nothing at all the Comelec from requiring prospective bidders and suppliers, bidders to produce at the very start of the bidding process the next of the final version of the software pretested and ready to be customized to the final list and (inaudible) of precincts among, others and ready to be deployed thereafter. The Supreme Court, Mr. President continues to say, but if there is still another (inaudible) reason why the approach taken by Comelec is reprehensible, it rhymes with a fairness assumption that nothing would go wrong and come election day the commission and the supplier would have developed, adjusted and reprogrammed the software to the point when the automated system would function as envisioned, but what if that such optimistic projection does not materialize, what if their all efforts the software that is now hurriedly developed and tested for the automated system performs dismally and inaccurately or worse it's hacked or manipulated, what then we would do with the money we spent even more important, what would happen to our country in case of failure of the automation. Mr. President I mean Chairman Melo well and I mean the entire Commission on Elections well and I do hope they would succeed, hiling at dalangin ko po ang atgumpay ni Chairman Melo ganundin ang buong Comelec sa pagpapatupad ng isang malinis, payapa at mapayapang halalan. Sana po magtagumpay sila at sana lahat ng dudang ito ay mapawi sa mga darating na linggo at mga darating na buwan at sana hindi umabot sa panahon at punto na sasabihin ng ninuman sa loob ng Kamarang ito na sinabi ko na sa inyo na dapat hindi na natin ito ginawa na dapat dinahan-dahan na ito, kaysa nagmadali, kaysa ipinilit at kinalabasan tuloy mas magulong halalan at mas pinag-aawayang resulta ng halalan, sa muli ang hiling at dalangin ko ang tagumpay ng Comelec sa pagpapatupad ng automated system na ito. Maraming salamat po, Ginoong Pangulo.