MANILA, Philippines?Although the opportunity to cheat in an automated election is very slim, a desperate and determined candidate can still cheat his way to office, said an executive of a recruitment company hired by a Commission on Elections contractor to hire information technology people for the national and local elections in May.

"With the automated election the chance to cheat is very slim, but for a cunning, desperate and sly politician, there are so many ways,'' Johnny Revilla, project manager of Placewell Manpower Inc. told the Inquirer in an interview last Thursday.

Revilla's company was one of three recruitment agencies who won the contract from Smartmatic to hire 50,000 information technology people to help in the operation and maintenance of the 82,000 Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines to be used in the countrty's first electronic balloting.

Revilla said of the total requirement, he was allotted to hire 16,000 technicians to be deployed in the areas of the National Capital Region (Metro Manila), CALABARZON (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon); MIMAROPA (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, except Palawan), and the the Cordillera Administrative Region, which includes the provinces of Abra, Benguet, and Mountain Province.

"Aside from the operation and maintenance, the technicians will also be tasked to answer questions and assist the voters inside polling centers on correct procedures,'' he said.

Other manpower firms tapped by Smartmatic are Manred and Ventureslink.

Revilla said that a technician's role is to explain to the voter what to do with the ballot. "The technician could only go near a PCOS machine if asked by the voter, otherwise, they are not allowed to talk or touch, write or press anything,'' he said

However, according to one of the information technology experts hired by one of the three companies, "cheating could be done both in in large and small quantities,''

"One of the methods would be to ensure that that the ballot cast for a certain candidate is invalidated.'' he said. "A technician could use a ballpen with leaking ink; a drop of the ink in the ballot is enough for the machine to invalidate it, and the technician could always say it was accidental,'' he explained.

"The large quantities would be for the politician to pay both the Board of Election Inspector which is the teacher and the technician who will insert all the pre-shaded ballots, which is very hard to do because of the presence of political party watchers,'' he said.

He expalined that historically, only about 70 percent of registered voters usually go out and vote.

"The remaining percentage could still be tampered if you will find the right people,'' the IT expert said.

But according to Revilla, safeguards on possible cheating by technicians are being addressed.

"The technicians are required to issue an affidavit they are not related to any candidate up to the fourth degree,'' he said.

He added that as part of thier contract with the Smartmatic, a site survey has been conducted on these cities and provinces and the result showed full automation in all the regions.

Revilla further explained that for thier part they recruited at least 24,000 personell spread in the said regions as PCOS technicians who will be stationed at all COMELEC designated polling centers, Canvassing and Consolidation System(CCS) technicians stationed at designated canvassing and consolidation centers, and supervisors who have jurisdiction over PCOS and CCS technicians.

He added that recruits must have had at least two years in college, computer literate and a cell phone owner, while for the supervisors, a vehicle is another requirement.

The technicians are expected to be present in thier respective stations at least an hour before the polls open, take charge of technician kit materials and validate all equipment and assist the BEI in the installation and the dismantling of the machines, subject to the orders of the Comelec.

Included in thier job description is reporting to the National Support Center of Smartmatic the status of the conduct of the elections, and provide first-level support of troubleshooting the equipment and other related chores during the entire process.