COMELEC’s former Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. and former Commissioner Augusto ‘Gus’ Lagman (Get It Straight with Daniel Razon)
MANILA, Philippines — For former COMELEC Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr., the election system being proposed by former Commissioner Gus Lagman can be adopted but the automation law must be amended.
In Lagman’s Transparent and Credible Election System or TCRES, voting and the counting of votes will be done manually, but the transmission and canvassing will be automated.
Chairman Brillante said, “He wants manual counting, manual counting means appreciation of the ballots. In the present system you don’t need to appreciate because the machine would just count the shaded portions. Teachers will do the appreciation. For example, a small dot or an X was placed is it valid or not? The teacher will determine it and the process will be slow. There will also be watchers that will object to it so it will really be a long process.”
Brillantes added that because the counting will be manual, pre-proclamation controversies must also be anticipated because of the questions that would be raised in the appreciation of the ballots.
“I already have heard Gus’ proposal. They never considered the aspect of pre-proclamation controversies which is actually the essence of the entire election law. When you proclaim on the basis of pre-proclamation controversy, there are arguments before a proclamation is made. This has been eradicated in the automated system. If we go back to manual then this will also happen again.”
But Brillantes said there is still enough time to amend the law to accommodate the TCRES. Chairman Brillantes also challenged Lagman to take responsibility if his proposed system is adopted by the commission.
“The problem with Gus, he passes the problem to the COMELEC and when things go wrong he pins the blame on them. Why don’t he act as the project manager and he runs it, he gets his own people, so if something happens we know who is at fault.”
Meanwhile, Brillantes defended the contract he signed for the refurbishment of the PCOS machines for it to be ready for the 2016 elections.
Brillantes said the commission would benefit from the P268.8 million-contract between COMELEC and Smartmatic which is now a subject of a Supreme Court TRO because of petitions raised against it.
The former COMELEC chairman hopes that the Supreme Court resolves the issue as soon as possible so as not to put a big setback in the Commission’s preparations for the elections next year.
“I hope the Supreme Court will sustain us, we had a good resolution on the refurbishment. But whether they declare it null and void, they should resolve it before the end of the month. Either way what’s important is for it to be resolved early.” (VICTOR COSARE / UNTV News)