Gordon says Comelec softened stand on Internet voting

Senator Richard Gordon on Tuesday said the Commission on Elections (Comelec)softened its stand on the implementation of Internet voting for overseas Filipinos. Gordon, chairman of the joint congressional oversight committee on absentee voting, said that after the lawmakers raised the issue of legality on Internet voting, Comelec representatives agreed to just pilot-test the system. The committee conducted a hearing Tuesday on the Comelec's plan to implement Internet voting for overseas Filipinos, particularly in Singapore. "The law says they can make a study but they cannot implement it," Gordon said. "In fairness to Comelec Commissioner Florentino Tuazon, he said they are willing to go on an unbinding test," Gordon said, explaining that for the May 14, 2007 elections, the Comelec will still implement Internet voting and voting by mail as specified under the law. Still, the senator said the implementation of the Internet voting is "an unnecessary expense that we ought to spare our people." "It's not even a good pilot, Internet voting is so full of holes, it's a very porous network and it would entail a huge amount of expenditure to ensure that the transmission is safe," Gordon said. It was earlier reported that for Internet voting, Comelec will spend P877 per voter while local ballot voting costs between P 400 to P 500 per person. Abalos, for his part, insisted that Internet voting is allowed under the Absentee Voting Act. "And before we did this, we secured the advise and opinion from the Office of the Solicitor General and the Department of Justice," Abalos said. "You mean to say we can make a study but not implement it? We are the implementors (of the law)," Abalos said. Gordon hit the Comelec anew for its refusal to implement the pilot testing of the Automated Election System, in 12 areas in the country consisting of two province and two cities each in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. Gordon also scored Comelec’s advisory council on the automated poll system. The council earlier recommended to the Comelec not to oush through with the implementation of the automated election system (AES). "They cannot advice the Comelec not to implement the automated election system because that is a policy of Congress," Gordon said. He insisted that the Comelec, if it wanted, could even do away with the bidding requirement for the purchase of the machines for the implementation of the AES. "They (Comelec) are insisting on the implementation of something that is not allowed by law, yet they are refusing to implement what is required under another law," Gordon said. Yet, Gordon is resigned to the fact that the Comelec would not likely implement his pet law, the AES for the May 14, 2007 elections. GMANews.TV