‘Vigilant’ monitoring of poll automation project assured

MANILA, Philippines – The Congress would be “vigilant" in monitoring how the Commission on Elections (Comelec) would spend the P11.3 billion supplemental budget for poll automation, an opposition lawmaker said Monday. In a statement, Sen. Francis Escudero, chairman of the bicameral oversight committee on the automated election system, described the poll automation project as the “biggest contract in the government right now." “We cannot take chances. We have to remain vigilant to the very end," said Escudero, who voted against the budget when it was ratified in the Senate. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Monday signed the supplemental budget Monday. Escudero said the oversight committee would now focus on how the poll body would utilize the fund and implement the plan to hold the country’s first fully automated elections. The senator called on the Comelec to make sure that safeguards are in place to prevent “automated cheating" in the 2010 elections. “After nine long years of mal-administration, our country cannot afford to have a failure of elections next year. If that happens, our people will completely lose faith in the electoral process," he said. Escudero noted that during the hearings conducted by the oversight committee, the Comelec failed to answer basic questions on how it would implement the poll automation project. “I voted against the supplemental budget because the Comelec failed to say how they will spend the P11.3 billion. They still don’t know what they will buy," he said. - Amita Legaspi, GMANews.TV