Let me start by saying this,
COMELEC IS NOT DOING THEIR JOB!
No other entity but COMELEC is responsible for all problems pertaining to the Philippine Elections.
What I really don't understand is despite the obvious errors, from COMELEAK,Website Hacking, up to this VCM counting issue, COMELEC still doesn't admit their incompetence in making this election clean, honest, accurate, meaningful and peaceful for the sake of Filipino people.
Here are my views on the critical issues:
1. Hashcode alteration- Hashcode is like a fingerprint of files. Because COMELEC wasn't able to control the situation, there are now lots of IT Experts in town giving their own opinion. There are even some promoting a cellphone camera to get a better screenshot, OMG! Also, due to the change made by Smartmatic on the hashcode, COMELEC is answerable and liable. If the hashcode wasn't changed, nobody would think that cheating occurred. That's why when I heard them say that the change was only cosmetic, that's just BS! You cant fool Filipinos! The act is now malicious because of the circumstances. How can we be convinced that the election was clean? If there are discrepancies in the hashcode, this will cause incomplete transmission, thus, an UNREALIABLE ELECTION SYSTEM.
2. Tweaking of scripts for the ñ problem- My point of view on this is this should not be a problem and this should have been fixed before the VCM counting. Why did Marlon Garcia of Smartmatic came in to correct the spelling without following certain protocol?
-The chain of command and roles and responsibility are not clear on COMELEC side. Who asked Marlon Garcia to do the tweaking? Why was it done directly to production?
-Production server should not be touched and accessed as easily as that. There should be a staging or test server where all the changes should be done and tested.
3. Source Code Review- What happened to the source code review? The tweaking shouldn't be a problem if this was noticed during the source code review period. The whole system should have been simulated if it will produce the right results. It should have gone through Distributed Interactive Simulation to know all situations before election time.
With all of this,
a. COMELEC should be responsible and be liable to this. This is not just an ELECTION issue, this is about the tax and the life of every Filipino for the next 6 years.
b. COMELEC must start reviewing policy inside their institution and must strictly IMPLEMENT it.
c. COMELEC must start investing in Cyber Security Program and should champion the election, as they should.
d. They should also make sure that SMARTMATIC pay the price under their supervision. This is BETRAYAL, BIG TIME!
I remember an article last April 29 that Comelec admits not having certification for automated polls.
http://cnnphilippines.com/news/2016/04/29/Comelec-poll-automation-system-not-yet-certified.html. In the month of May, there is an article "Automated polls finally certified accurate, secure "
http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2016/05/06/1580371/automated-polls-finally-certified-accurate-secure . I believe, noting the time these articles were published, the certification was rushed. Thus, it paved the way for all these controversies the COMELEC is now facing. They owe it to the public to honor the mandate given to them and give us clean and honest elections. There were improvements but they still came up short! That's the TWEAK done by COMELEC that we all do not see!
