Exclusive

By Raissa Robles

The Smartmatic website and official results of our 2010  elections have suddenly vanished from the World Wide Web while we weren’t looking.

Since Friday, I have been looking for www.smartmatic.com and could not access it on the Internet. It was as if it never existed. (I wonder if the telegenic Cesar Flores is still in the country.)

I also tried accessing the results of our recent 2010 elections from the website wwww.ibanangayon.ph

This website is still up.

Ibanangayon.ph website

But when I clicked on the box (shown below) to access the election results down to the precinct level, all I got was a message saying “problem loading page.”

I clicked on this box in the website ibanangayon.ph to view election results and got an error message

I remembered  I could also access the election results through the Commission on Elections website. But when I clicked on electionresults.comelec.gov.ph – through a link provided by Smartmatic – again there was nothing.

So I called a friend, Gerry Kaimo, to ask him to do the same thing. And he came up with the same results: The Smartmatic company website was down and our election results have been wiped clean from the Web.

An hour ago, Ederic Penaflor Eder, editor for Yahoo! Philippines, tweeted me after I had asked him to try to access Smartmatic.com and our election results. Ederic said:

Smartmatic.com is working, but electionresults.comelec.gov.ph and electionresults.ibanangayon.ph are giving me “connection timed out” error.

I  asked him to recheck because Smartmatic.com was giving me a timed out error.

Minutes later, Ederic tweeted back:

Sure. Hmm, I signed out of VPN and now, all sites are giving me “connection timed out” error on Firefox. Weird. Let’s ask Kuya @cesarfz?

I hope Ederic can get through Cesar Flores.

Personally, I am deeply disturbed by this. I had rejoiced to be able to see election results from the national  all the way down to the precinct level for the first time.

What are the implications of this on the dozens of electoral protests that have been filed, including the one that Senator Mar Roxas is about to file against Vice-President Jejomar Binay? Remember that  Cesar Flores once  said – any election fraud leaves a digital trail.

Where’s the digital trail now?

Does the Comelec and the PPCRV have its own copy of the official elections results down to the precinct level or were they relying all along on ibanangayon.ph? I hope not.

Was Smartmatic deeply offended by President Benigno Aquino’s snub of Ms. Transparency and by Congressman Teddy Boy Locsin’s perorations against the company and its officials?

I hope this is not its retaliation.

I hope this teaches us that we cannot outsource our democratic exercise to a foreign corporation.

Let’s make our own automated election system. We have three years to do it.

Official Senate photo

Senate chief Juan Ponce Enrile is nimbly transforming himself into a champion of democracy and honest elections, trying to leave behind like an abandoned snakeskin his long-held role as suppressor of basic freedoms.

But what is he really up to?

The May 31, 2010 issue of Tribune newspaper quoted him as saying on radio station DZBB that “my target” for proclaiming the next president is June 15. But then he added:

If there will be any snag, it still should not be later than the 28th or 29th of June.

He vowed:

I will not allow this country to be without a president by June 30. I will not let that happen even if they hang me.

Should we clap now that he is the people’s champ for democracy?

I would clap except for this tiny bit of information that I got two weeks ago that makes me suspect Enrile is up to something that in the end will benefit himself. Of course it could also benefit the Filipino people but that remains to be seen.

Two weeks ago, I was doing a story for my newspaper SCMP and I managed to talk
to ex-president Joseph Estrada’s closest ally, former Senator and Philippine ambassador to Washington Ernesto Maceda.

Enrile told Estrada – don’t concede

Maceda explained to me why Estrada will not concede to Senator Benigno Aquino III just yet. And he mentioned in passing that it was Enrile who advised Estrada not to concede.

He told me: “Manong Johnny advised (Estrada) against early concession.” Maceda quoted Enrile as saying that despite the swift counting of Smartatic and Comelec, as of 5 pm of May 11th, not a single COC (certificate of canvass) had arrived at the Senate.

Maceda is used to my being makulit – now how do I translate that into English? Bothersome with questions?

So I asked Maceda – are you saying Enrile met with Estrada and personally told him not to concede?

Maceda replied:

It was Enrile who strongly recommended that Erap not issue a statement.

For days I waited for Enrile to disclose that bit of information. But to this day he continues to give the public the impression that he has nothing to do with Estrada’s refusal to concede. That he will try mightily to resolve all issues that will snag Aquino’s proclamation when in reality, all he has to do is tell Estrada that he, Enrile, no longer has any objections to it and Estrada can already concede defeat.

Perhaps Enrile could explain why he is holding the entire nation hostage when he knows perfectly well that Aquino had nothing to do with the election cheating.

As for Estrada’s complaint, I believe now that he has reason to complain but it doesn’t mean he was robbed of his victory by Aquino, as what Koala Bear claimed in that suspicious videotape.

Enrile is the last person to take up the cudgels for someone who was cheated in an election. Fifteen years ago, Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr accused Enrile of cheating him of victory in the 1995 Senate race. Pimentel won his case against Enrile before the Senate Electoral Tribunal. Enrile tried to have the decision reversed by the Supreme Court but lost.

Here is the link to the ruling dismissing Enrile’s appeal.

I asked one of my sources why Enrile did not want Estrada to concede. My source laughed and said Enrile must be “horsetrading”. Perhaps he wants to remain Senate President for starters?

It must hurt Enrile so

That’s entirely possible. But there might also be another reason.

The sudden election of Senator Aquino to the presidency must hurt Enrile so. When he was around the same age as Senator Manuel Villar is today, Enrile lusted after the presidency. I interviewed him then for Business Day when he was at the height of this Martial Law administrator powers. He cut a dashing figure.

He made it known without saying it aloud that he intended to foil the presidential ambitions of then First Lady Imelda Marcos and the military chief Fabian Ver. He intended to succeed Marcos.

The plot that would have installed Enrile to power was unfortunately discovered by Marcos. Then people power came to Enrile’s rescue and prevented Marcos from killing Enrile.

And Corazon Aquino became president. She had no choice but to embrace Enrile
and make him defense secretary.

But that did not stop Enrile from wanting to be president. His chief aide-de-campe Gregorio Honasan led a series of bloody coup attempts – including one that laid siege to the Makati business district -  to try to dislodge Aquino from Malacañang Palace.

Fighting back, Mrs Aquino charged Enrile with the crime of “rebellion complexed with murder” and jailed him overnight, I think. It was sweet revenge to all the human rights victims of Enrile and Marcos. And that included the Aquino family, I guess.

Now Enrile is again confronted with the difficult task of proclaiming as president the son of the woman who foiled his precious ambition. Ooh, that must hurt.

Dear Members,

We are issuing this statement on the harassment of a FOCAP member.

_____________________

Statement on Harassment of FOCAP Member

The Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines condemns in the strongest terms the manhandling and detention of one of its members, Francis Malasig of the EPA photo agency in Taguig city Sunday night.

Malasig went to the Taguig University late Sunday to check reports of an unusual gathering of people outside the university on the eve of the May 10 elections.
Arriving at the scene, he said he saw people in and outside the university compound and asked permission from two guards to get in. Inside, he said he saw people in classrooms distributing blank IDs. At that point, some people, clearly belligerent toward him, stopped him from taking pictures and ordered him to leave. He explained that he had permission and showed proper COMELEC press accreditation.

Sensing danger, he headed out of the compound but was stopped by the same group. He said some of them hit and manhandled him and forcibly brought him to a local police station. He inquired from a police officer why he was being held against his will. He got no clear answer.

He was later transferred to the Taguig police station, where an investigation officer allowed him to go after two hours of detention when nobody showed up to file any complaint against him.

The FOCAP views this as a clear case of harassment of a properly identified news photographer on a legitimate news assignment.
This is a clear violation of press freedom at a time when open coverage of the national elections is most crucial.

We demand that Taguig officials and the Philippine National Police investigate and prosecute those responsible for this blatant transgression of Malasig’s rights.

There’s one possible way to test the accuracy of the automated voting, at least for the national positions.

We could make the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines count the votes cast so far in Hong Kong and even in Singapore. At the same time, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) will do a manual count of the same votes.

Comelec can also do something to make voters put some trust in those PCOS machines: Order Smartmatic to enable the PCOS to issue every voter a “receipt” so each voter can check immediately afterward if the machine recorded the votes correctly. The receipts are not to be taken home or be shown to the vote buyers, as what Comelec spokesman James Jimenez warned would happen.

And Smartmatic, please explain why your explanation for the recent fiasco does not jive with the proof I have below.

Voters have no way of knowing their votes were counted

The problem with this election is that at the precinct level, there is no way that voters will know their votes were counted. All we voters will get is a “Congratulations” message on the screen of the PCOS machine and that’s it. After the polls close down, there is no manual counting of the votes – a practice that has been in place since this Republic was born.

Jimenez recently shot down Ted Failon and Pinky Webb’s proposal over DZMM to have the PCOS issue a “receipt” to voters just like the way banks issue one after a deposit or withdrawal, or supermarkets issue one after payment is made.

Jimenez said:

This is not a bank. So the analogy is very wrong. Pag nagbagsak ka ba ng balota mo sa ballot box may resibo ka ba? (When you drop a ballot in a ballot box are you issued a receipt?) As a security feature, it doesn’t do anything. It will probably satisfy you personally. It is not even a very good psychological comfort for you because it was very easy to fool. It was very easy to fake.

For instance, he said,

Bibigyan ko instructon ang makina – but still count the wrong ballot. In the end nadaya ka rin.(I could give an instruction to the machine to show your votes correctly but still count your ballot wrong. In the end, you would be cheated.)

I told former Comelec chairman Christian Monsod this explanation by Jimenez. Why Monsod, you’d probably ask. Because among all the Comelec chairmen I’ve covered since Leonardo Perez (the one who rigged the 1986 snap election of dictator Ferdinand Marcos), I find Monsod the most credible since he came out financially poorer from the stint.

Anyway, Monsod told me in his usual blunt way:

Don’t listen to James. On that issue, I think that’s a poor excuse. Sometimes James Jimenez goes off in tangent on these issues inventing excuses. And that’s a poor one.

That’s why former poll chair Christian Monsod also wants a “receipt”

Monsod explained it was actually part of our automation law to have a “voter verified precinct paper audit trail (VVPPAT).” In short, the same receipt that Jimenez said should not be done. Monsod told me:

That is not going to be done although that’s in the law.The original plan was for voters to look at it (the “receipt”) and put it in a separate box before they leave the precinct. That was never intended to bring out.

Monsod explained that the “receipt” was intended to be used in the random manual counting when the polls close down.

He added:

The real reason (they don’t want to issue the receipt is) they would have to configure the manufacturing of the equipment. It costs a lot of money to do it.

Isn’t that what they are doing right now because of their stupid mistake with the ballots and the CF (Compact Flash) cards? If it’s their mistake, it’s ok to spend our money. If it’s what civilians ask for, it can’t be done. That’s the attitude of Comelec and Smartmatic so far.

I told Monsod that the Comelec today reminds me of the Comelec under Leonardo Perez.

I also told Monsod that (issuing “receipts”) is precisely what Smartmatic did in Venezuela when it introduced automated voting in 2006. The Wikipedia entry on the electoral exercise said :

After the vote is cast, each machine prints out a paper ballot, or VVPAT, which is inspected by the voter and deposited in a ballot box belonging to the machine’s table.

Later, these paper ballots were tallied in a random manual audit.

Why can’t we do the same here? Do a random but comprehensive parallel manual audit this way because we can assume that whatever is tallied by the PCOS are all reflected in those “receipts.”

The “receipts” in turn have been VERIFIED by the voter himself right after casting his vote. If there’s a discrepancy between the “receipts” and the PCOS summary for that precinct, then we can rightly assume that the PCOS did not count the votes correctly in that precinct.

Again James Jimenez, didn’t Smartmatic tell Comelec that it issued such “receipts” to voters in Venezuela?

Proof that Smartmatic is not telling the whole truth about what went wrong

Smartmatic’s explanation for why their PCOS could not even do simple addition that my grade schooler son can do mentally does not wash.

Smartmatic officer Cesar Flores said in the hastily called press conference with Comelec Tuesday (May 4) that during the printing of the ballots, the spacing of the local ballot face (the back of the ballot) was adjusted to double space from single space. The single space was the formatting used for the national contests, he said.

Both Comelec and Smartmatic officials said nothing wrong was detected with the counting of votes for the national position.

Only the votes for the local position were affected and Flores’ explanation was that the change from single space to double space for the local ballot face was not included in the compact flash card. Because of this, he said the PCOS machine read the back side where candidates for the local elections were printed as if it still had a single-space format, causing the machine to wrongly allot votes to certain candidates or skip other
names.

He said:

The flash cards inside the PCOS were not able to locate certain candidates to positions. For some reason, the configuration was telling the machine that the second row visually is actually the third row.

The next row was read as a “blank space,” he said.

This explanation does not seem to jive with the reality

When Smartmatic and Comelec snubbed the Foreign Corresopndents Association of the Philippines last February, Smartmatic sent over a middle level officer named Miguel Avila to demonstrate the PCOS using their sample ballots then. Fortunately, I snapped a few photos of the ballot.

This is how the ORIGINAL BALLOT looked. Notice that the front page – where the national candidates are printed – was a mixture of single space (for president, vice-president and senators) and double space (for party-list). The  names were also printed vertically.

Smartmatic used this sample ballot in mock polls with FOCAP - Photo by Raissa Robles

This is how the back page of the ORIGINAL  BALLOT looked. Notice that the names of all the local candidates were also printed in single space and positioned vertically.

This is the back page, where local candidates' names are printed, of the sample ballot used by Smarmatic with FOCAP last February - Photo by Raissa Robles

After  Comelec’s drastic redesign, both  the FRONT AND BACK of the original ballot changed dramatically.

Last Saturday, our barangay gave out samples of the newly redesigned ballot. See below how the front page containing the names of the national candidates changed.  Notice that the names of the national candidates are  NOW ALL DOUBLE SPACE and laid out horizontally. It’s a very drastic redesign of the original ballot.

Front page of actual 2010 ballot - PHOTO by Raissa Robles

The back page containing the names of the local candidates now look like this. Notice that the names of the local candidates are now DOUBLE SPACE and laid out horizontally. Also a drastic redesign.

Back page of actual 2010 ballot showing local candidates - PHOTO BY Raissa Robles

What I would like to ask Smartmatic and Comelec is this:  Why is it that your CF cards were able to read the newly and drastically redesigned FRONT PAGE of the ballot containing the names of the national candidates, but were unable to read the BACK PAGE containing the names of the local candidates?

What are you not telling us?

Another thing that struck me during the Focap “non-briefing” – Miguel Avila gave out sample ballots to fill out and his instructions were to fill out ONLY THE FRONT PAGE, not the back page. I found that odd then.

This fiasco makes me wonder whether all this time Smartmatic and Comelec have been testing only the front page of the ballot where the national candidates are printed and NEVER the back page where the local candidates are printed.

The implications of this fiasco

I am proposing the advanced counting of the Singapore and Hong Kong votes to test the system. This would not affect the process as a whole. Whatever is counted can just be added manually to the national count later on. If you think that would create trending, think of the more serious implications of the current situation.

The ENTIRE PROCESS of the automated polls has now become suspect and questionable. Smartmatic claims only the votes for the local candidates were scrambled. But Nacionalista Party sokesman Gilbert Remulla made serious allegations Tuesday (May 4) that in one instance of testing, votes for NP presidential candidate Manuel Villar disappeared.

According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Remulla showed reporters a tally sheet from a PCOS machine and a parallel manual count:

There were five votes for Villar, five votes for Aquino, but when it came out (in the machine), there were no votes for Villar, no votes for Noynoy and 10 votes for Teodoro. Is this automated cheating?

You know what this means?, my hubby Alan told me at the breakfast table. He said this lays the basis for an election protest that could hold up the proclamation of the new president. I agreed.

He nudged me to write this on my blog, which is why I’m writing this. That the victory of whoever wins, based on the automated polls, could be forever marred by this. And then we will again have six years of a presidency with a questionable mandate from the people.

That’s too high a price to pay which I for one am not willing to pay. If that happens, I will add my voice to that of retired military chief Angelo Reyes who raged during Comelec and Smartmatic’s presscon that those responsible should be “hanged”. Not only hanged, I say, but drawn and quartered the medieval way.

I got this by e-mail.

There must be something about public office that makes a man, even a man like Vice Presidential candidate Jejomar “Jojo” Binay, alluring.

Early this month I wrote about Mon Tulfo’s naughty but serious entry about this billionaire candidate having an affair.

I narrowed the guesses down to four and Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay was one of my finalists.

But I did not know much about his marital life and so I dismissed him. I was wrong.

Today he owned up to an affair – it was a long time ago, he said.

But this much I do know about Jojo Binay. I first met him during Martial Law because he, together with my father, Prof. Jose Espinosa, and another human rights lawyer named Joker Arroyo were defending editor Joe Burgos of Malaya newspaper which the dictator Ferdinand Marcos had shut down.

When Binay became officer-in-charge (OIC) of Makati City after Marcos’ downfall, he showed me the Mayor’s Office, long occupied by Nemesio Yabut who was known for his wide taste in women.

Binay smiled at me as he pushed a wooden wall of the office inward. It opened to a large secret bedroom with a wide bed inside.

He was all in wonderment when he showed me around the bedroom.

Thanks to Binay, Makati City now has a brand new building to house its city hall.

I wonder if the present mayor’s office also has a secret bedroom.