MANILA, Philippines--Senator Alan Peter Cayetano better be ready with the P100-million reward.

Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Jose Melo admitted on Monday that hackers could break into the computer system of the country's proposed automated elections but this would require a ?very, very expensive machine? and ?a lot of time to such an extent that, before you can hack it, the elections are already over.?

Melo said that computer experts told him that hackers would try to hack the transmission of the results.

?The truth is, the experts are saying that the important or sensitive (part) that you can hack is the transmission of the results and not in the voting. It is the results,? Melo said in an interview with reporters after a Senate hearing on the P11.3 billion proposed election automation project.

?I can supposedly be hacked but you need a very, very expensive machine to do it. You need a lot of time to do it, to such an extent that before you can hack it, the elections are over. The results have been released,? he added.

Cayetano earlier filed a Senate resolution setting aside P100 million as an incentive to anyone who can convincingly show the weakness of the automated poll system to be used in the 2010 elections.

?There are fears that election automation, though it promises to significantly curb cheating present in the manual system and shorten the waiting time for results from weeks or months to mere two days, it may actually induce a bigger and more sophisticated method of election cheating if the system is vulnerable to manipulation,? Cayetano said.

However, Melo said he was not in favor of having such a contest, adding that it would only result in a ?circus.?

?I am not really in favor of that because if we have a contest, we'll look like a circus. Everybody will be here. Those who have bad intentions and want to hack our system will be here,? Melo said.

?The attention will be on the P100 million and not on the election. Moreover, hacking is a criminal offense. It is punishable by law,? he added.

Melo said he would be amenable to it only if the money were provided by the system providers and not by the Comelec.

?If at all, the providers, not the Comelec, could say we're offering a prize to those who can hack this,? he said.

Cayetano said that if any information technology expert (IT) or even a computer hacker could prove that the computerized counting system would not be secure from fraud and tampering, ?Comelec should cancel the contract (to the winning bidder), save the P11.3 billion and sue for damages in the event of such successful hacking.?

?The most effective way to test if indeed a system is credible, reliable and tamper-proof or fraud-proof is to offer a sizable prize to whoever can hack and convincingly show the weaknesses of the system,? he said.

Cayetano would rather support a move to revert to the antiquated manual counting of votes if the computerized system would only lead to wholesale cheating.

?An automated system is only desirable if we are sure that there will be no wholesale cheating. If we can prove that there will be cheating... we don?t know how to guard it,? he said.