Precinct Finder not yet on Comelec website pending DICT OK —Garcia

Because of the recent hacking incidents victimizing some government agencies, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has not yet published the precinct finder for the 2023 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (2023 BSKE) on its website.

Comelec Chairperson George Garcia said the commission had initially planned to publish the precinct finder last week.

“Hinihintay namin ang go signal ng DICT [Department of Information and Communications Technology]. Alam niyo naman 'yung issue ng data privacy at intrusion ngayon sa ating mga data dahil doon sa mga pangyayari ng hacking,” Garcia said.

(We are waiting for the go signal of the DICT. You all know the issue about data privacy and intrusion of our data due to the hacking incidents.)

“Pagka po 'yan [precinct finder] ay na-hack, napakalaking problema po natin lalo sa issue ng mga impormasyon ng ating mga kababayan,” he added.

(If that gets hacked, that will be a big problem especially with regard to the issue of our countrymen's information.)

Garcia said there are a total of 92 million voters in the BSKE 2023.

Of this number, 68 million of them, according to Garcia, are regular voters while 24 million are SK voters.

BSKE 2023 will be held on Monday, October 23.

A total of 42,001 barangay chairperson posts and SK chairperson posts are up for grabs in the said elections.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has declared October 30, 2023 as a special non-working day throughout the country for the BSKE. —KG, GMA Integrated News