MANILA, 25 Sept. — The government should start working now on an automated polling system in time for the 2004 national elections, a senator and an organization of overseas Filipinos said yesterday.
Sen. Edgardo Angara insisted that poll modernization is imperative in making the proposed absentee voting law succeed since the entry of 6 to 7 million overseas voters into the system has to be backed up by automation.
Angara warned that the failure to put in place the infrastructure for poll modernization will be a black mark on the crucial 2004 presidential elections.
The voters registration and information system (VRIS) which the Supreme Court ruled against was to help in putting in place three major reforms by late 2003.
Angara said these reforms, a new voters registration list and a tamper-proof identification, automated counting of votes, and automated canvass of votes, would ensure the sanctity and integrity of the 2004 elections. "As it is, the Philippine electoral system is one of the dirtiest and most obsolete in Asia. We have to reform the system to make sure that the 2004 votes really reflect the will of the electorate," he said.
OFWnet Foundation chairman Eduardo del Rosario said this merely meant "the old, decrepit master voters listing which is a polluted source will still be used."
Del Rosario said: "Comelec will just be counting questionable votes faster and even if absentee voting passes, it can not be implemented in 2004."
"Say goodbye to a clean and modernized election come 2004. That will mean wholesale cheating and back to a Third World electoral process," he explained.
The VRIS was designed to rid the voters list of illegal entrants and spurious voters and provide a new voters database.
Election watchdog Namfrel (National Movement for Free Elections) was, however, of the opinion that the high court’s ruling on the Comelec deal with Photokina would merely free up the 1.2 billion pesos allocated for the VRIS for the use in the purchase of ballot-counting machines.
Namfrel Chairman Jose Concepcion said the amount would cover shipment and insurance of machines, ballots, ballot boxes, recruitment and training of operators, nationwide voter information program, and other attendant costs.
"We would recommend to Congress for additional funds to cover the balance," Concepcion said, since the modernization fund of the Comelec is reported to have an accumulated amount of P1.9 billion.
Even before this ruling, Angara said the senate electoral reform committee created a technical working group to help coordinate the drafting of a comprehensive poll modernization program.
