Smartmatic bares NPA harassment in provinces

Communist rebels have been hampering the preparations for this year's May 10 computerized elections especially in the provinces, an official of the consortium in charge of the automation process said on Thursday. Gene Gregorio, spokesperson for the Smartmatic Corp.-Total Information Management (Smartmatic-TIM), said some areas in Luzon have not been surveyed for transmission signal due to presence of New People’s Army (NPA) rebels. He said in Masbate and Quezon provinces, the rebels have been extorting money from their site surveyors. "They [NPA] have been sending feelers that we should do like what candidates do. They tell us we should cooperate," he said. NPA rebels are known to collect “permit-to-campaign taxes" from candidates, especially at the local level, during the election season. The national government has discouraged local politicians from giving in to the insurgents’ demands. Almost complete Gregorio, however, said that despite the threat, Smartmatic-TIM has almost completed its nationwide site survey. He said only seven percent of the 84 provinces in the country have not been surveyed. He assured that the consortium is likely to meet the deadline for site surveys next week. For the surveys to be finished on time, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said it is willing to provide military and police escorts to the site surveyors. "We informed Smartmatic-TIM that if (they) have a problem with security, (they) should tell us so we could inform the police and the military to provide them security," said Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal at a press briefing. Site surveys are conducted to check the availability of GSM network radio signals – the same kind used by cellular mobile phones for calls and SMS – for access by polling precincts. On election day, a reliable GSM signal is needed for the transmission of election results to other precincts and poll offices. - KBK/RSJ, GMANews.TV