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Automation subcontractor says ‘Smartmatic hiding too much’


A former key officer of a firm tapped by vote automation provider Smartmatic for its national support center during the recent May 10 elections offered more proof on Saturday that the automation firm hid many “irregularities" from the public. Jonathan Manalang, former operations director of the contact center LRA Pacific, said that one of these unpublicized aspects of the automated elections was a “powerful" server whose function was unknown and which Smartmatic refused to divulge. "There were a lot of hidden stuff they did not want to reveal even to us. They said 'Don't worry, we know what we're doing. We've done it so many times'," Manalang said. The former LRA Pacific director was one of several speakers at a forum held on Saturday by a consortium of civil society groups which questioned the electoral mandates of President-elect Benigno Aquino III and Vice President-elect Jejomar Binay, among others, as a result of what they claimed to be widespread fraud in last month's polls. The Movement for Integrity in Governance and Honesty and Truth in the May 2010 Elections (MIGHT-e2010), which defines itself as a 'non-partisan gathering of civil society organizations, political groups, business entrepreneurs, and concerned citizens' in its website, raised more points in its effort to prove that the May 10 elections were tainted with irregularities. Speaking at the forum, Manalang pointed out — as another example of “irregularity" — Smartmatic's order to verify among its field technicians throughout the country only the number of Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines that they received in their respective areas. Manalang explained that Smartmatic did not order the contact center agents to verify with the technicians if these were exactly the machines that were supposed to be delivered to their area. According to him, knowing only how many PCOS machines were deployed in an area would not guard against possible fraud attempts. "Each PCOS machine is only allowed to count a certain amount of votes. For instance, a [clustered precinct] is only allowed 1,000 voters. If the PCOS for [this precinct] gets to Bulacan, which is only allowed 500 votes, [cheaters could feed more ballots to the PCOS until it reaches 1,000, at which time it is going to stop reading additional votes]," he said. Manalang said he was not asked to report for work anymore on May 11, a day after the elections, for reasons he said he did not know. Secret backdoor For his part, Secretary General Roberto Verzola of Halalang Marangal, another poll watchdog group, also claimed that a “newly-discovered backdoor" in the PCOS machine allows untraceable manipulation of its operations. Verzola claimed that there is a console in the PCOS machine which was originally thought of as having only output capabilities, but which has been shown to have input capabilities as well. "This console… gives anyone full control on the operating system of the PCOS machine. The log is saved to volatile memory, which is lost every time the machine is turned off… which leaves no record of the activity for a forensic exam," Verzola claimed. "This means that any trace of intrusion can also be erased by the intruder," he added. He alleged that the “secret backdoor" was deliberately kept by Smartmatic from the public, and urged the supplier to "admit to [its] security lapse." He also asked that all ballot images be unencrypted and posted online, grouped per clustered precinct, "so everyone can see for themselves if their votes were counted properly." ‘Questionable mandate’ Other MIGHT-e2010 speakers, on the other hand, focused on questions about the legality of the results of the recent polls. "[The May 10 elections] was the most dishonest elections I had ever seen… the worst in terms of fraud and violations of the law," lawyer Homobono Adaza said on Saturday. "They proclaimed a president and vice president based on the committee report, [which is] illegal. Therefore it follows that the proclamation is illegal… The proclamation of local and national candidates including the president and vice president is illegal and unconstitutional." Adaza was referring to the June 9 proclamation of Aquino and Binay, which was done after the conclusion of the national canvassing by the Lower and Upper Houses of Congress. Aside from his questions on the legality of the June 9 proclamation, Adaza also reminded Aquino that he was a 'minority president,' with more people having not voted for him than those who did. Based on Commission on Elections (Comelec) figures, Aquino obtained some 15.2 million votes, while all the eight other presidential candidates combined obtained a total of about 20.9 million votes. Mainstream media coverage The coalition, which also includes defeated presidential bets Sen. Ma. Ana Consuelo “Jamby" Madrigal, Eddie Villanueva of Bangon Pilipinas and JC de los Reyes of Ang Kapatiran, also did not mince words in commenting on the mainstream media's election coverage. Madrigal lamented what she claimed was a dismal reportage of various fraud allegations. "Mainstream media has not really carried the facts of fraud and the miracles during the canvassing. It has shown a certain bias of glossing over the bombshells… so we have to inform the people of things that the media should be doing daily," Madrigal said. "We cannot allow the mainstream media to think this is the cleanest elections we ever had… [Sometimes] we begin to think that the media has been co-opted by dark, moneyed elements," she added. Adaza in turn questioned the veracity of survey results of pre-election preferences coming from leading pollsters Pulse Asia and Social Weather Stations, saying that sample population in their surveys did not accurately represent a complete Filipino demographic. Surveys from both poll firms consistently put Aquino at the top. While questioning Aquino's mandate, Pastor Ronald Tan, who ran and lost in Tagaytay's vice mayoral contest, also challenged the incoming president to probe the poll fraud allegations. "With all due respect, if it really his desire to rid this nation of corruption, start here. Start with this election. And to erase any doubt as to your victory, there is nothing that will prevent us from saying let us manually count all the ballots," Tan said. MIGHT-e2010's other members include the Philippine Computer Society, Anti-Trapo Movement of the Philippines, Brigada Berde, Bantay Garci 2010, Mahal Ko Bayan Ko, Center for Alternative Development Initiatives, Buklod National Political Party,Quezon City Political Coaltion for Truth, Para Sa Bansa Movement, Buklod Political Party, and ATRIPPEDA. —JV, GMANews.TV

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