Comelec urged to amend BOC, BEI guidelines to address possible legal, technical issues

The United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) on Wednesday urged the Commission on Elections to immediately address election-related technical and legal issues that may arise on May 9 and even during the canvassing period.

In a statement, UNA spokesperson Mon Ilagan said the Comelec should amend its Resolution No. 10083, the General Instructions for the Board of Canvassers on the Consolidation/Canvass and Transmission of Votes, to require the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) and the BOCs to check the hash codes for inconsistencies.

Ilagan said Resolution 10083 only allows two instances of any pre-proclamation controversy: illegal composition and illegal proceedings.

He said it practically sets aside other scenarios like issues on SD cards, faulty electronic transmissions, questionable election returns, and other technical and legal issues that are legitimately raised during the conduct of elections.

“Hindi po binibigyan ng puwang sa Comelec Resolution 10083 ang anumang mga reklamo tungkol sa mga teknikal o legal na isyu. Kung sakali mang may makitang anomalya o mayroong matibay na pruweba na pinakialaman ang software, hindi po ito bibigyan ng karampatang pagkilala ng BOC dahil hindi nakalahad ang mga ganitong scenario sa Resolution 10083," he said.

"Kahit merong pong conclusive proof, ang sasabihin lang po ng BOC ay ‘Noted’ at itutuloy pa rin ang canvassing at proklamasyon,” he added.

Ilagan said the resolution should be amended for the BEI and the BOC to check and verify the hash code of the VCMs vis-à-vis the published hash codes.

“Importante po na consistent ang hash code ng mga VCM sa hash code na naka-publish. Kung magkaiba po ang hash code, ibig sabihin ay tampered o altered ang software at malinaw na pandaraya ito,” he said.

“Given these scenarios, we urge the Comelec to amend Resolution 10083 to require the BEIs and BOCs to check the hash codes for any inconsistency, and instruct them not to proceed with the election or canvassing if such cases arise,” he added.

He said UNA it is better to have the resolution be amended now while there is still time to relay it to the BEIs/BOCs before it is too late.

“It will be just like the election year 2004 when each motion or question raised to the BEI was countered with ‘Noted’ instead of granting or denying such motion. To underscore that the Comelec is doing everything to ensure a credible elections, it should speedily act on the multiple complaints raised by the public,” Ilagan said.

Former Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal has raised alarm over the glitches encountered by the vote counting machines (VCMs) during the field tests conducted last week.

Larrazabal said the Comelec should lay down contingency measures for BEIs to verify hash codes of the VCMs, noting that there must be “a procedure, properly disseminated to the BEIs and stakeholders, on how to verify the authenticity of the software used in the VCMs all over the Philippines.”

He added: “This is accomplished by verifying the hash code of the VCM. The procedures should include how to resolve a dispute in case there is discrepancy in hash codes because THERE IS ONLY ONE HASH CODE FOR ALL VCMS all over the Philippines. The Hash Code for the VCM are found in the Initialization Report and the Election Return. Failure to do this will run counter to the thrust of COMELEC of being transparent.” — Amita Legaspi/RSJ, GMA News