Locsin committee to clear Smartmatic of poll fraud

The House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms is inclined to clear technology provider Smartmatic-Total Information Management Corp. (Smartmatic-TIM) of alleged involvement in poll fraud after the firm sufficiently answered queries about the automated election system, the panel's chairman said Wednesday. Makati City Rep. Teodoro "Teddyboy" Locsin Jr. said he has nothing more to ask of Smartmatic-TIM officials who were able to satisfy the committee’s queries during the two-week hearings on alleged cheating in the May 2010 polls. Rep. Locsin's questions answered "So far they've been able to answer everything," Locsin said in an interview with reporters after the hearing. Smartmatic-TIM was able to account for the import documents of the Precinct Count Optical Scan machines and other election paraphernalia, Locsin said. The lawmakers' request to check on the possible affiliations between logistics companies involved in the elections and officials of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) were also checked by Smartmatic-TIM. The answers to the committee’s queries and requests were contained in a summary prepared by the Comelec. "Smartmatic was the one who wrote that summary on my request. [It is] accepted," Locsin said. The Locsin committee conducted the hearings in response to allegations by some losing candidates and supposed whistleblowers that the country’s first nationwide automated polls were marred by massive cheating. Locsin, who is on his last term as congressman, said he was not against the idea of Smartmatic-TIM again providing the technology in the 2013 elections. However, Smartmatic-TIM must be able to satisfy all queries regarding the May 10 elections and its role in it, as well as investigation audits should calls be made for such a probe, Locsin said. It could also be that there was a loophole in the system Smartmatic-TIM used, and the company would say it was able to plug that loophole, then "Why not the system we're familiar with?" Locsin said. Shifting attention to the Comelec Locsin said the committee would now shift its focus on the Comelec. The committee would like the poll body to explain why it gave the order to send 20 compact flash (CF) cards and two CF card burners to each provincial election supervisors as contingency measures. "I don't need [answers] from Smartmatic now. What I need is Comelec," Locsin stressed. In the hearings involving Smartmatic-TIM, poll watchdog Halalang Marangal's IT expert Roberto Verzola said that based on the firm’s technical presentation in Cabuyao on Monday, any cheating could only have been an "inside job" during the elections. Smartmatic-TIM maintains a warehouse in Cabuyao, Laguna for the PCOS machines and other election gadgets and equipment. "It is highly improbable based on the demonstration that the successful intrusion could be done by outside hackers. If the successful effort to tamper with the system is subsequently proven, since we have eliminated the possibility of outside hacking, then the only remaining possibility is an inside job," Verzola said. To which Locsin replied, "This is why, as chairman, I'd say this is why at the end of this hearing we're really gonna be coming very close to clearing Smartmatic and the focus of inquiry would shift to Comelec." On May 20, however, Locsin lost his cool and hurled invectives at Smartmatic-TIM representatives after he was told that the supposed time stamp errors on the election returns from automated voting machines were "relative" and "unforeseen." [See: Locsin blows top during house hearing] 'Truck-size loophole' The lawmaker said in the interview after Wednesday’s hearing that sending 20 blank CF cards to the provinces "indicates a loophole big enough for a truck to pass through." "It's possible to re-read ballots if you have a different CF card. Where do you get the CF card? Everything is accounted for expect for 20," Locsin said. While Smartmatic said that the 20 CF cards did not mean there will be cheating, the Comelec must say which of those cards were used and reconfigured. During the hearing, Smartmatic Asia president Cesar Flores maintained that massive poll fraud was not possible just because each province was given 20 CF cards as back-up in case the initial cards malfunctioned. "It cannot be done because anyone can go to CD-R and buy a card and card reader. The guarantee is the data only comes from the one source - in the Cabuyao warehouse," Flores said, adding that the additional memory cards were practically useless unless they get the reconfiguration code from the warehouse. He was referring to CD-R King, a popular chain that sells inexpensive consumer technology items. "The fact that those cards are there doesn't mean people can cheat," Flores said. At one point in the hearing, Flores said he wished there was a "bigger involvement of all the stakeholders in understanding" the automated election process so that it wouldn't have to be explained over and over again. He noted that Smartmatic-TIM had held several presentations about how the automated election system would work even before the elections. Hearings to resume on Thursday The Locsin committee will resume its hearings on Thursday, with Comelec executive director Jose Tolentino, the official who signed the order for the 20 additional CF cards, expected to attend. "Please be advised that replacement of defective CF cards will be done at the offices of the DOST [Department of Science and Technology] provincial directors. Twenty (20) blank CF cards and two card burners will be deployed to your respective offices," Tolentino’s May 9 memorandum, addressed to regional directors and provincial supervisors read. "The DOST provincial director shall take care of the replacement upon orders from the Comelec central office," the order read. —VS/TJD, GMANews.TV