DATE: February 4, 2003

PUBLICATION: Philippine Inquirer

TITLE: Breakthrough (Conclusion)

AUTHOR: Conrado de Quiros

(Conclusion)

I ASKED the Botong Pinoy people at the Ateneo de Naga where they got the idea for their system. They said they based it on existing models from all over the world, drawing out their best features and adapting them to local conditions. In particular to the kinds of cheating that happens here. Who knows? they said, if the system is successful here, they can export it to other countries, with modifications. Who says the Filipino can't be world-class?

Botong Pinoy's advantages over the ballot box are patent. The ballot box allows cheating at every phase, from registration (flying voters) to voting (multiple voting, vote padding and shaving) to counting (substitutions, theft of ballot boxes). Even the recount invites cheating. I know a case where the losing candidate found a way to get to the archived votes a year after the elections and stuffed the boxes with fake votes. He shot up from third or fourth in the congressional race to first. Fortunately, the House Electoral Tribunal ruled against him, finding that degree of discrepancy unbelievable.

Botong Pinoy removes cheating at all those levels. You can't register twice, you can't vote twice, and you can't be counted twice or, as in the case of “dagdag-bawas” (vote padding and shaving), more than twice or not at all. The recount clinches the argument: It's backed up by a barcoded hard copy. And it's fast. Very, very fast.

The system is particularly ideal for the overseas vote, which is vulnerable to tampering. The computers can be set up in the Philippine embassies and other places to be designated by government and monitored by overseas workers' organizations, and allow the voters to vote within the day. Currently, there is a real danger of a mass of overseas workers being disenfranchised by the expected long queues at the embassies and the slowness of the prevailing system.

In fact, Botong Pinoy isn't just patently superior to the ballot box, it is patently superior to the method the Commission on Elections has chosen to modernize voting with. That is the "Mark Sense system" that was tried out -- unsuccessfully -- in the elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. The system uses an optical sensor from IBM to detect information and is expensive and fairly unreliable.

A comparison between the features of the Mark Sense and Botong Pinoy systems shows this: Mark Sense uses only expensive ballots the optical sensor can read (the process is made to adjust to the machine and not the other way around), it can only reduce “dagdag-bawas,” it can only determine the outcome of elections in five days, it cannot verify if the right vote is being tabulated. Botong Pinoy uses plain paper for printout, eliminates “dagdag-bawas,” can determine the results in a day, and has an ironclad way of verifying votes.

The initial response to Botong Pinoy has been enthusiastic, particularly from the Filipino community in the United States, which has volunteered to donate computers for it. Botong Pinoy has already gotten a pledge for more than 200,000 computers from them. All that's needed is to replace the screens with touch screens, which is worlds cheaper than the Mark Sense system.

There is a complication here: The National Citizens Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) watchdog group is ferociously lobbying for Mark Sense, since its top honchos have a business interest in it. To a point where the election modernization law has been worded in a way that commits the Comelec to it for a couple of presidential elections. The system, which is now regarded as obsolete, can be changed only in 2116. That is intolerable.

I asked: Can Botong Pinoy be hacked? No, they said, it is a stand-alone system, there are no backdoors hackers can sneak through. I asked again: Can the system be tampered with at the polling places so that the wrong votes are sent to the central office? No, they said, only the right person can vote, and he or she can't vote more than once. Once he does, the vote is transmitted instantly. I asked still again: Can the votes be tampered with at the central office? No, they said, the votes will be sent not just to Comelec but also to other accredited poll bodies, including those to be put up by NGOs. Any effort by a group to rig the results will show.

It's an impressive system, as I've said. Short of anyone demonstrating exactly how it can be infiltrated or subverted, I'm willing to push for it heart and soul.

I've only one caveat, which is the need to educate or familiarize people with the technology. It doesn't take much imagination to see there's work to be done there. You see it every day while queuing before an ATM: someone absolutely petrified while dealing with the machine, especially with people in the queue registering their impatience with audible noises. The petrified are not masses, they are middle class, even rich people. For Botong Pinoy to work, it has to orient the public in the technology, through TV and actual demonstrations. But this is not a formidable barrier. We have ample time before next year's elections.

Which brings me to the need for all of us to rally behind the effort. The only people I can imagine who would not want it are those who are determined to cheat because it is the only way they can win. Which include the “trapo” (traditional politicians) in Congress and the Senate. The other group is the one that's pushing for the obsolete to modernize the primitive. That is to say, Joe Concepcion and company -- the Namfrel. But they can always be persuaded to see the light, by the same method they've always extolled for ending tyranny, which is people power.

I asked Father Joel Tabora, Ateneo de Naga president, how he would take it if the resistance from the recidivist elements proves enormous, and the proposal is blocked. He answered fervently: "If that happens, we'll take to the streets."

Well, if it happens, I'll be there with him.