A 100 Percent Manual Audit of the AES?

From Felicito C. Payumo:

Lately, there have been enough people who, previously, were giving the COMELEC the benefit of doubt in making the Automated Election System (AES) “systems ready” before the May elections but are now clamoring that it switches to a “completely manual mode.” It is not just the readiness of the system but the acceptability to the public of the machine count that is being questioned. But a fully-manual system means going back to the 45 days of nerve-wracking waiting game and making our country again a laughing stock while the rest of the world watches our slow motion count. And wouldn’t that put to complete waste the P7.2 Billion rental payment to Smartmatic?

Do we have no other option but to make a leap of faith in the untried and distrusted AES or revert to the fully- manual system of counting and canvassing of votes? Are they our only two ineluctable choices?

While the law requires a Random Manual Audit (RMA) of one precinct per congressional district, everyone agrees that that sample size is woefully inadequate. Suggestions have been made to increase it from ¼ of 1 percent of the population to 7.5 percent - the bigger the sample the less margin of error- but the COMELEC has been non-committal. Equally important is the transparency of the manual audit by the BEI auditors using the traditional manual counting witnessed by official watchers of political parties and accredited observers. The results of both the PICOS machine count and manual count should be posted in the precincts. Needless to say, in case of discrepancy, the “root cause of the discrepancy” should first be determined as required by law, but the count that is most transparent –i.e. manual count- should be the one transmitted electronically. Common sense dictates that there be no proclamation of candidates before the manual audit. The argument that waiting for the manual count will cause delay betrays the “rush to proclaim” intent. The manual count, as everyone knows, takes at most 12 hours.

100 Percent Manual Audit- But there is a third and preferred option -a 100 percent parallel manual audit- this, being our first nationwide automated elections. All ballots counted by the 75,471 PICOS machines should be manually counted in the traditional fashion before the public at the precinct level. I can almost hear the COMELEC officials cry “why spend for the machines if we are to do 100 percent manual count anyway? It will mean extra cost and delay.” Even the technical experts among my friends think that a 100 percent manual audit is an overkill.

But they miss the point! Public acceptance of election results of the local contests is equally important as acceptance at the national level. A given sample size may be adequate to determine the accuracy of the count for national candidates but not at the local level. To illustrate, SWS or Pulse Asia, with a sample size of 1200 in their poll surveys, can give results with a + or – 3 percent margin of error for national candidates. But the same sample size - divided into 4 areas, namely, 400 for Metro-Manila, 400 for Luzon, 400 for Visayas and 400 for Mindanao – is too small to read the preferences for Governor, Congressman, and especially, Mayor with the same degree of accuracy. In like manner, a sample size for random manual audit good enough to determine the winners of national candidates, will certainly not be acceptable to determine the winners at the local level. A candidate for Mayor, especially, who has no trust in the machines, will not accept his loss when only 1 or 5 precincts have been manually audited in his municipality.

Hence, a 100 percent manual audit of all machine counts is not an exercise in superfluity. It is imperative that there be public acceptance of the election results from national down to local level. Public acceptance is indispensable in a democracy.

It also serves as the first block in confidence building for the AES. Should the results show a high congruence between the machine and manual counts, then the AES, subject only to normal safeguards will encounter less public resistance in the 2013 and subsequent elections. The funds spent for the machines, therefore, will not have been wasted, and automation, still “a consummation devoutly to be wished”, will be attained.

With respect to the extra cost of doing the manual audit, the same BEIs attending to the voters in their precincts can be used as auditors for other precincts. At 3 BEI-auditors per precinct, the 75,000 clustered precincts will need a total of 225,000 auditors. Paying P1000 per auditor will total only P225 million. It is a small amount to be paid for public acceptance of the election outcome.

After paying a staggering P7.2 Billion to a foreign company, Smartmatic, for mere rental of the PICOS machines, COMELEC should not quibble about a pittance to our own teachers and officials, (who will probably circulate the money in the country in a matter of days) in the interest of a credible election. But should the COMELEC refuse, the public has the right to ask, “Is there a sinister agenda that we do not know”?

Felicito C. Payumo

F.C.Payumo was a three-term Congressman of Bataan and former SBMA Chairman/Administrator. He is Chairman of the University of Nueva Caceres.

Tyranny of Guile

We witnessed in the past few days a rising public indignation against an attempt of this administration in its dying days to extend power by proxy. We witnessed the brazen and sly attempt to pave the way for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to appoint the next Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

We have an administration adept at operating in the shadows trying to make a midnight appointment. Not content with appointing all but one of the men and women sitting in the High Court, this outgoing President desires nothing less than absolute domination even at the expense of violating our fundamental law.

We condemn this move to have the outgoing President appoint the next Chief Justice that also paves the way for the appointment of his replacement. This yields a Supreme Court of 15 Justices, all of whom were appointed by the same President. It is yet another manifestation of shameless impunity. It is yet another arrogant display of power. It is yet another breach of our trust. We see clearly through this brash yet clumsy attempt to shield the guilty from accountability.

We are appalled to see brilliant minds so servile and to hear spin spewing from glib but forked tongues. They have all been reduced to peddle silly lies that insult their own intelligence.

We do not claim to be legal luminaries but we can all read and understand our fundamental law. The Chief Justice is a member of the Supreme Court. The President can only appoint a Chief Justice from a list of nominees submitted by the Judicial and Bar Council. Midnight appointments are prohibited by the Constitution. This ban stays until June 30. The next President has 45 days from assuming office on June 30 to appoint the next Chief Justice. Our Constitution is not the exclusive domain of lawyers. It is the most fundamental law that binds us all.

We call on anyone with ambition to lead our judicial institutions not to be seduced by power and shun any unconstitutional appointment. There is no honor in empty titles conferred by deceit. There is a price to pay for complicity in criminal acts for those who conspire in this midnight appointment and anyone who benefits from it.

We call on Chief Justice Reynato Puno to rise and meet this defining moment as his judicial career comes to a close. We ask for his strong moral leadership as Chairman of the Judicial and Bar Council and reject calls to transmit to this outgoing President the list of nominees for his replacement. Let not a tarnished and divided Supreme Court be his legacy to our nation.

We admire those who, with the courage of their convictions and in plain and simple words, make their intentions known without equivocation. We are inspired by people who take a stand against the tyranny of guile.

We call on others aspiring to lead our country to likewise condemn in the strongest possible terms the acts of this administration that undermine judicial independence and further erode our democratic institutions. It is their bounden duty to do so. We ask them to also tell our people how they intend to deal with the excesses of this administration when they assume the mantle of leadership.

We find comfort knowing that the abuse will soon come to pass. We vow to work for a better future in the company of people who have the courage to speak truth to power.

We remain committed to work for good governance and the restoration of decency and propriety in public service.

We stand as one in defense of our Constitution and the Rule of Law.

SIGNED:
Sen. Vicente Paterno
Sen. Leticia Ramos Shahani
Tomas Africa
Ariel Aguirre
Rafael Alunan III
Angelito Banayo
Leonor Briones
Victor Gerardo Bulatao
Sostenes Campillo Jr.
Elfren Cruz
Isagani Cruz
Neni Sta. Romana Cruz
Rodel Cruz
Jose Cuisia
Guillermo Cunanan
Karina Constantino David
Edilberto De Jesus Jr.
Ramon Del Rosario Jr.
Teresa Quintos Deles
Carlos Dominguez
Jesus Estanislao
Fiorello Estuar
Fulgencio Factoran Jr.
Ernesto Garilao
Cecilia Garrucho
Milwida Guevarra
Philip Ella Juico
Nixon Kua
Lina Laigo
Ernest Leung
Alberto Lim
Narzalina Lim
Juan Miguel Luz
Gregorio Magdaraog
Jose Molano Jr.
Vitaliano Nañagas
Norberto Nazareno
Imelda Nicolas
Cayetano Paderanga
Guillermo Parayno Jr.
Felicito Payumo
Cesar Purisima
Victor Ramos
Amina Rasul
Walfrido Reyes
Sixto Roxas
Miguel Perez Rubio
Juan Santos
Cesar Sarino
Corazon Juliano Soliman
Hector Soliman
Jaime Galvez Tan
Ricardo Mirasol Tan
Wilfrido Villacorta

(Philippine Star, 8 February 2010, p. 17)