OLast of 3 parts

N the matter of AES procurement in the past five national and local elections

(NLE), Comelec complied with the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of RA 9184 or the “Government Procurement Reform Act,” specifically fulfilling their bidding execution on Section 23.4.1.3 that states: “The prospective bidder must have completed, within the period specified in the invitation to bid, an SLCC (single largest completed contract) that is similar to the contract to be bid, and whose value, adjusted to current prices using the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) consumer price indices, must be at least fifty percent (50 percent) of the ABC (approved budget for the contract).” This was also adopted by SB 1950. However, the House bills, specifically HB 03896, shifted a bit by specifying, “Notwithstanding the provisions of RA 9184 and its IRR, no bidder shall be disqualified from participating in the procurement of equipment and materials for failing to comply with the SLCC requirement thereof.”

If you analyze closer the non-disqualification of a bidder vis SLCC on another perspective, this makes sense because with HES, Comelec may procure appropriate electronic devices, say laptop computers with three-year warranty, from the local suppliers in a province thereby eliminating the logistical transportation from the current warehouse down to the precinct levels. Replacement of defective laptops and loading of counting or canvassing programs on the election site would be as easy as 1-2-3. Thus, procurement from a single supplier with SLCC is eliminated, making SLCC not applicable anymore. Anyway, laptop computers are available in all corners of the country as these common devices can be procured in malls or trading stores.

In addition, the bulk of procurements in the last five NLE were the multi-billion acquisition/lease of PCOS or vote counting machines (VCMs) and the outsourcing of data centers for central, transparency and backup servers. That’s why Comelec had to comply with the IRR of RA 9184 due to high cost consideration and the technical complexities that went with it. With HES, the use of inexpensive laptop computers would be a no-brainer choice in implementing it, including the utilization of the Comelec’s data center. Likewise, the laptop computers may be turned over to the Department of Education after elections and consequently eliminate the multimillion-pesos expense of warehousing and machine maintenance of VCMs every year.

Of course, we can still use the approved Comelec inhouse-developed consolidation and canvassing system (CCS), through the help of DoST, that has been inactive since 2012. It was not implemented in the 2013 NLE for some unexplained technical reason even if the CCS was thoroughly tested by the DoST and accepted then by the Comelec project management team of former Commissioner Gus Lagman. It only cost P 600,000 compared with the multi-millionpesos charged by the five-time service provider! Even the counting system at the precinct level could also be locally developed as what was used in the 2015 mock elections in Bacoor National High School — this was the first successful live HES demonstration by Nanfrel/AES Watch/ Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) as part of their Filipino Information Technology for Elections (FIT4E) advocacy in tapping Filipino IT talents (Read: “FIT4E: The only transparent solution,” http://www.manilatimes. net/fit4e-the-only-tansparent-solution/194505/).

Another FIT4E mock elections ensued in 2016 showcasing Filipino ingenuity. Former Comelec chairman Andy Baustista commented about it in a JCOC hearing on Aug. 6, 2016: “Insofar as the Tapat System is concerned, we were invited to witness the demonstration at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila in July, myself and Commissioner Guanzon attended this demonstration. I think we have publicly stated that we think that this system has promise and that we will look into it. Except that again given time constraints for the 2016 elections, I don’t think that we can meaningfully consider Tapat. But as I said, put it on record, for subsequent elections, we will look into Tapat.” (Read: “JCOC & DoST support Filipino-made election system, Comelec sees it promising” https://www.manilatimes. net/2016/08/16/featured-columns/columnists/ jcoc-dost-support-filipino-made-election-systemcomelec-sees-it-promising/280361).

Hence, HES is advantageous and beneficial to the government in terms of cost effectiveness (i.e., inexpensive electronic devices, no warehousing, no maintenance, quick replacement of defective devices, three-year warranty, etc.), simplified election operations, compliant with ideal ladderized canvassing vis Batas Pambansa 881, tactical logistical handling, and most of all — transparency through public counting!

Conventional manual system before 2010

This option would bring us to the “dagdag-bawas” syndrome that had plagued our conventional manual election system at the precinct level and the ballot snatching and switching during the transport of the ballot boxes. Though the counting of votes then was similar to what’s been happening in our barangay elections that could be finished in a matter of hours, the canvassing of election results took several long weeks. This is aside from the “Hello Garci” issue. That’s why, the AES Law’s primordial objective in 1997 was to eliminate these undesirable lingering concerns then.

Total shift to federal system

The draft 2018 constitution appears to be similar to HES in terms of counting of votes in public and I quote: “The Federal Republic shall guarantee the public nature of elections, ensure full transparency and accessibility of the electoral process, and the verifiability and integrity of the electoral results, regardless of the mode of election...The appreciation of ballots, counting of votes, and the overall conduct of any election, whether it be manual, automated, or a combination of both, shall be accessible, verifiable, and open to public scrutiny at all stages.” Hence, it appears that the execution of a federal election system could be patterned in the HES.

To conclude, the 19th Congress may choose among the five options described herein. Apparently, HES looks very promising in the next NLE. The mere fact that these bills were filed shows how serious our 17th and 18th Congress was in passing the use of HES. There was even an attempt to conduct a pilot run of HES in the 2022 NLE in two urban cities and two rural municipalities.

Yet, the stakeholders, political parties, citizens’ arms, watchdogs, concerned Filipino associations (local and abroad) and the general public should be proactive, as in now, in supporting the HES so that the 19th Congress could straightforwardly pass it with gusto.