Brillantes must resign if he fails to show source code – Gordon

DIPOLOG CITY, Philippines — Former senator Richard Gordon asked Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Sixto Brillantes to resign if he fails to show the source code for the elections next week.

In a press conference in this city before the weekend, Gordon said that Brillantes should explain Comelec+fs failure to secure the source code, or the human readable instructions that define how the pcount optical scan (PCOS) machines work.

Gordon also said that the poll body's failure to secure the source code robs Filipinos of clean and credible elections.

“I am the author of the law (Automated Election Law) that gave the country an automated election system Comelec's duty under the law is to make sure that the precinct count optical scan machines have a source code,+h said Gordon, who is running for the Senate under the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA).

“Our democratic process should not suffer and our people should not be robbed of clean, honest elections just because Smartmatic International Corp. (supplier of the PCOS machines) and Dominion Voting System (owner of the source code) are fighting with each other, and if the Comelec failed to do its due diligence to secure the source code,+h he added.

The former senator also noted that since the Comelec knew beforehand of the dispute between Smartmatic and Dominion, the poll body should have done something about it.

“When you buy something, the distributor will deliver what it promised and you pay big amount for it. The Comelec has a duty to ensure that there is a source code for the 2013 elections, whether it came from Dominion or not“ Gordon pointed out.

He argued that it is reasonable to think that without the implementation of legally mandated safeguards such as the source code and digital signatures, the floodgates to cheating are open.

“That's why I filed the petition for mandamus with the Supreme Court,” Gordon explained. “They are the last bastion of justice and I hope that even if the justices are in recess now, they will come back to resolve this very urgent issue of national impact.”

“Our very democracy is at stake here,” he added.

Meanwhile, Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo yesterday said he was not impressed with the Comelec+fs offer to release the source code used in the 2010 elections.

Pabillo said it is more interesting to review the source code to be used in the May 13 elections than what was used in the 2010 polls.

“To us, that's already useless. It's  not just about having a source code. What we are after is the review (of the 2013 source code) to know the commands that they placed there,” Pabillo added.

Pabillo also noted that even if there is a source code for the elections next week, it will not be reviewed by political parties and other interested groups at this time because a three-month period is required to complete the task.

Brillantes said last Friday that he has coordinated with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for the release of the 2010 source code to put an end to rumors that no source code was used in the previous elections.

The Comelec chief made the statement the day after anti-election fraud organizations Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM) and Automated Election System (AES) Watch filed a complaint before the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva, Switzerland.

The groups complained that the Philippine government violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights because it allegedly failed to ensure the free expression of the will of the electors in the 2010 polls and is failing to do the same for the 2013 elections. — With Evelyn Macairan