By BUENA BERNAL
A POLL group filed yesterday before the Supreme Court a petition to restore the digital signing of electronic election returns (ERs) for the Monday polls. Without the signatures, the entire electoral exercise can be rendered illegal.
In a 10-page petition, COMPACT for Peaceful and Democratic Elections urged the Commission on Elections to allow the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) to use their digital signatures before transmitting the results.
The BEIs are to press “No” when the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machine displays the message: “Would you like to digitally sign the transmission files with a BEI signature key?” after the closing of the May 10 polls.
The instruction is stated in Comelec Resolution No. 8786, which revises Comelec Resolution No. 8739, the original General Instructions (GI) for BEIs. The March 4 version of the GI deactivated the digital signing of the ERs.
But under Section 19 of the Automated Election Law (Republic Act 9369), “election returns transmitted electronically and digitally signed shall be considered as official election results and shall be used as the basis for the canvassing of votes and the proclamation of a candidate.”
COMPACT co-convenor Al Vitangcol, lawyer and IT expert, said the signed ERs will be the basis for proclamation.
Without the signature, the ERs will be rendered unofficial. The law states that the basis for the canvassing of votes will be the electronic copy of the precinct ER and not the hard copy.
The group also said the defeated candidates can later petition the courts to nullify the proclamation of winning candidates since the results are based on an “unofficial” ER.
According to COMPACT co-convenor Loretta Ann Rosales, Comelec took the digital signatures as a redundant security feature, saying there are already other safeguards in place.
On April 20, COMPACT forwarded a letter to Comelec Commissioner Jose Melo stating that the digital signing of election returns will ensure a more credible elections.
Ten days later, the group sent another letter asking the poll body to review its decision on deactivating the digital signature feature of the PCOS machines as it will render an “illegal technical process within the Automated Election System (AES).”
Should the High Court junk the petition, the group said they will urge BEIs to sign the electronic ER regardless of the instruction from Comelec. The group is represented by Vitangcol, Rosales, NBN-ZTE scam whistleblower Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada Jr., and former National Statistics Office (NSO) administrator Tomas “Butch” Africa.
The author is a student of the University of Sto. Tomas doing her summer internship at Vera Files.