Press Release
July 3, 2009

ON THE SMARTMATIC-TIM 'RECONCILIATION'

The announcement of the Commission on Elections that Smartmatic and TIM have agreed to settle their differences is a welcome development. But I wish to stress that this development does not, in any way, resolve the major issues relative to poll automation. The poll automation contract is still tainted by legal and logistical infirmities, and the nation is no closer to clean and honest elections now than it was two weeks ago.

We remind COMELEC, and all those who accuse us of being anti-automation, that Republic Act 9369 is clear on the process of automating our elections. We should automate first in pilot areas - two highly urbanized cities, and two provinces in Luzon, two in the Visayas, and two in Mindanao. And the objective, in fact the spirit, of this law is clear as well: clean and honest elections.

Unless and until we resolve these poll automation issues, the promise of clean and honest elections will most likely remain just that, a promise. Automation, per se, is not a cure-all to fraud and cheating. We should not be forced into a position where we have to agree to an inferior contract for the sake of automation because this may only lead to automated cheating.

Meanwhile, let us be vigilant against poll cheating. If our collective aspiration is for clean and honest polls, then we must bear this in mind always. Cheating can occur whether we have manual or automated polls unless we are vigilant.

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