Chiz says ex-poll official claimed data discrepancies in 2016 elections

Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero on Thursday claimed a witness — a former election official — had given him data recorded by vote counting machines in three regions that show discrepancies.

If true, the inaccuracy in the data may change election results “to a certain degree,” Escudero told reporters after a hearing of the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee (JCOC) on the Automated Election System.

“To what extent, hindi ko alam, at kung hanggang saan, hindi pa rin namin masabi sa ngayon,” he said.

Escudero said his source of information is a former Commission on Elections (Comelec) official who will testify at the next JCOC hearing in three weeks.

At Thursday’s hearing, the senator questioned officials of the Comelec about the number of backup drives which transmitted votes in place of the main.

Jeannie Flororita, acting director of the Comelec’s information technology department, said the system only logs the IP address of the machine.

“It does not know whether it is the main card or backup was used during the [transmission],” she said, adding it is also not automatic for the backup to kick in when the main fails.

“When the main is corrupted, we have a process of transferring ‘yung backup to the main, so laging main ang source,” Flororita said.

“I have records to show that the backup is not a mirror image of the main CD, a lot of them, and if you don’t even know kung alin ‘yung ginamit na backup and alin yung ginamit na main, how can we expect it to be accurate down to the last vote?” Escudero asked.

He gave them three weeks to provide printouts, the number, and locations of the backup drives used.

Only after knowing the number of backups that kicked in during the election result transmission, he said, would he ask if there was an issue of “manipulation.”

“That is a basic technical issue that should not even be present dahil dapat mirror image siya,” he said, likening the main and backup drives to carbon copies.

“Ang problema ko right now hindi alam ng Comelec ilan nga bang backup ang ginamit dahil ayon sa kanila backup man o main, basta pinadala, ‘yun lang ang concern nila,” he also said.

Acting Comelec chairperson Christian Robert Lim said they would look for the information Escudero requested, but also told reporters he has not seen a case like the senator described. 

He also could not immediately provide a number of the back drives that transmitted returns, but expressed confidence in the automated election systems.

“Ang sa akin, pag hindi nag-match ang main at saka backup, ibig sabihin ‘di makalabas ng resulta ‘yung machine,” he said.

Asked what he would make of results being generated out of non-mirror-image main and backup drives, he said: “Medyo kakaiba ‘yun. But we’re confident in the systems that were tested... we’re not scared na hindi siya magma-match.”

However, Escudero clarified the purpose of his inquiry is not to favor certain candidates over others.

“Hindi kami papayag na magamit ang komite ng sinumang may protesta ngayon o sinumang may pending na kaso sa ngayon para sa anumang pwesto, national o local man,” he said.

“Ang pag-aaral na ito ay ginagawa namin para maiwasan na muling mangyari sa darating na halalan sa 2019,” Escudero later said. —KBK, GMA News