Government favors use of counting machines in 2007 polls

Malacañang backed yesterday moves to seek the approval of the Supreme Court (SC) for the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to use the 1,991 automated counting machines (ACM) bought from the MegaPacific consortium in next year’s elections.

Officials said they were pushing for the passage of the budget for election modernization.

Speaking at the Kapihan ng Bayan forum organized by Government Mass Media Group head Cerge Remonde at Sulo Hotel in Quezon City, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said using the ACMs would be the most practical way to ensure computerized elections next year.

"First of all, please recall that among the 10-point agenda of the President is automated elections," he said.

Romulo Macalintal, President Arroyo’s election lawyer, said he would ask the SC today to allow the testing of the ACMs for use in the May 2007 elections.

Macalintal said he would file the petition as a private citizen, not as Mrs. Arroyo’s election lawyer.

However, Ermita said he could not discuss the legal implications of Macalintal’s action.

"While Attorney (Romulo) Macalintal is not necessarily speaking in behalf of the government, being an election lawyer he sees the practicability of the utilization of those automated equipment," he said.

"Being a practical person, if I go by the objective of government, definitely (that will help)."

On the other hand, presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor said retired Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr., presidential adviser on electoral reforms, found nothing wrong with the use of the ACMs.

The government wants to ensure that the 2007 elections would be automated, and so it is seeking the opposition’s cooperation for the program’s budget to be passed, he added.

Macalintal said the Department of Science and Technology had declared the ACMs as 100 percent reliable and accurate, and that taxpayers should press for their testing because they cost the government P1.2 billion. — Aurea Calica