Comelec ready to defend personnel facing criminal indictment over script change

An official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Wednesday said the poll body is standing by its personnel who are about to face criminal charges in court over the script change in the transparency server during the May 2016 elections.

"In any event, the Comelec stands ready to defend its personnel and fully cooperate with the appropriate authorities, as a matter of first principles, in fulfillment of the institution’s mandate to ensure the integrity and credibility of Philippine elections," Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said in a statement.

Jimenez said the poll body was surprised but was taking seriously reports that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has ordered the filing of cases in court for several violations of the Cybercrime Prevention Act (Republic Act 10175) against Comelec information technology experts Rouie Peñalba, Nelson Herrera and Frances Mae Gonzales.

The DOJ also found probable cause against Marlon Garcia, head of technical support team of poll technology provider Smartmatic, and his subordinates Neil Baniqued and Mauricio Herrera.

The Comelec had admitted the script of the transparency server, which hosts the unofficial election results, was tweaked on the night of election day, May 9, 2016, but only to correct the “?” character into “ñ” that appeared in the names of some candidates.

The poll body said the script change did not affect the results.

"It will be recalled that this same matter had been ruled upon in September 2016 by the Manila Prosecutor’s Office, which found that the script change had not been attended by bad faith," Jimenez said.

"Moreover, the Comelec Advisory Council, for its part, concluded that the results of the election were not affected by the script change in any way," he added.

Still, the DOJ said the respondents committed an illegal act for failing to secure the required authorization from the Comelec en banc before changing the script in the transparency server stationed on Pope Pius Center in Manila.

The DOJ maintained that there need not be any showing of criminal intent to establish the commission of the offense. —Virgil Lopez/KBK, GMA News