House eyes 2 ‘companion bills’ to P11.3-B poll automation budget

MANILA, Philippines - Even after approving the P11.3-billion supplemental budget on third reading Tuesday night, the House of Representatives is eyeing the approval of either one of two "companion bills" that will likely determine how the 2010 elections will be conducted. In a press conference Tuesday, Deputy Speaker and Cebu Rep. Pablo Garcia and Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez presented bills they filed separately that push for partially and fully automated elections, respectively. Garcia's House Bill 6054, which was passed by the Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms earlier in the day, mandates manual voting, counting, and canvassing. Only the transmission of votes will be done electronically, Garcia said. "Under this process there is no need to purchase or lease those expensive voting machines," Garcia said, as he added that under the present law, "manual and automated elections can go together." Paper trail Rodriguez's HB 6070, which he filed Wednesday afternoon with co-author Camarines Norte Rep. Liwayway Vinzons-Chato, proposes to make virtually every part of the electoral process from registration automated, except that machines will print electronically-generated election returns. "In all these stages it is electronic but there is a paper trail," Rodriguez said. The bill's salient features can be summed up as follows: a compulsory biometric registration system, a computerized nationwide voters list, and adoption of "minimum voting system standards," and "full automation of the vote counting and canvassing process with emphasis on simultaneous transmission of election returns and certificates of canvass." HB 5715, the measure allocating an P11.3-billion supplemental budget for election automation, was approved Monday night with 193 affirmatives votes, one negative vote, and one abstention. Speaker Prospero Nograles said in the same press conference that it is imperative that either one of the two "companion bills" to HB 5715 be approved before Congress goes on recess starting March 7, as he pointed out that current laws provide for manual election canvassing, among others. "If we go full automation we might be violating certain provisions of the Constitution and the present election laws," Nograles said. The House will extend its Monday to Wednesday session schedule until Friday to give way to the passage of either one of the "companion bills," Nograles said. - GMANews.TV