MANILA, Philippines—The specter of “Hello Garci” haunts Namfrel as retired Vice Adm. Tirso Danga takes over an office that will print ballots in the 2010 election.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s appointment last week of Danga to the National Printing Office (NPO) “does not augur well,” says the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections, or Namfrel.

“We would like to express our great concern. We are really worried about this,” Henrietta De Villa, chair of the poll watchdog, told reporters Tuesday.

Danga has been implicated in the alleged cover-up of claims of vote padding in the 2004 balloting revealed in wiretapped conversations purportedly between Ms Arroyo and former Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.

The retired Philippine Navy vice admiral was chief of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) when the telephone calls were allegedly monitored.

Danga has denied that the ISAFP was in the business of wiretapping.

Ms Arroyo also has denied any wrongdoing in connection with the tapes, whose revelations in 2005 had sparked widespread calls for her resignation and several impeachment attempts in Congress.

To formalize complaint

Appointing a military man allegedly involved in the “Hello, Garci” scandal throws doubt on the President’s sincerity to make the upcoming balloting clean and transparent, De Villa said.

She said this undermined efforts of citizens’ group and the Commission on Elections to make the 2010 polls, which the Comelec hopes will be automated, clean, peaceful, and credible, De Villa said.

“If we are for transparency and we would like to believe that the President would like to leave a legacy, especially with the coming 2010 election to help make it as transparent as possible, we believe that this appointment does not augur well for that transparency,” De Villa said.

She said that Namfrel and other election watchdog groups will formalize their complaint against Danga’s appointment.

Similar concerns have been raised in the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Automated polling budget

On Tuesday, the House committee on appropriations approved the P11.3-billion supplemental budget for automated elections. It includes an allocation for the mandatory “biometrics” registration—computerized listing using fingerprints, signature and picture of voters—to cleanse the voters’ list.

Commission on Elections Chair Jose Melo said he was pleased with the inclusion of the purging of the voters’ list of dead voters and other irregularities, saying it was like “shooting two birds with one stone.”

Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, backed by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, led the move for the validation and cross-checking of voter registration.

“The bedrock of the electoral process is the registration of qualified voters. If a voter is not registered, he can’t exercise suffrage,” Lagman said. “We’d have to protect integrity of voters’ list.”

Biometrics system

The Comelec already uses the biometrics system for newly registered voters, but about 25 million or half of those on the voters’ list had only registered manually, according to Melo.

He said these manually registered voters should submit their biometrics information to the poll body otherwise they would be delisted.

But Melo later explained to reporters that this process should be covered by an enabling law or could be incorporated in the budget law.

During the hearing, Comelec officials explained that the supplemental budget would be used to lease the optical scanning machines that would essentially take a photograph of ballots that the voters would use.

The voters would shade an oval corresponding to the name of the candidate they choose, and the machine would scan the whole document and record the votes cast.

“In optical scans, there is a second paper trail of the ballot,” explained Comelec executive director Jose Tolentino Jr.

2 optical scans

The Comelec would also use two kinds of optical scans: the precinct count optical scan, where the machine would be installed in classrooms and the voter himself would insert his ballot into the machine; and the central count optical scan, where the machine would be located outside the classroom.

Upon questioning by the lawmakers, Melo explained that the Comelec decided to just lease the optical scanning machines because if it bought these, the poll body would have to spend for their storage.

Also, the technology could improve a lot over three years and by the time the next election rolls around, the machines would already be obsolete.

The Comelec has an option to purchase the machines after the 2010 election, according to Tolentino.

Early voting

He also said the Comelec is proposing that the voting hours be extended up to 6 p.m. from the usual 3 p.m., and that it welcomes the bill providing for early voting.

Early voting, Tolentino said, would enable the poll body to focus its efforts, security measures and resources in a particular region.

After the voting is over, the machines used in these places could be deployed to other areas, which means the Comelec could reduce the number of machines it needs to lease or purchase.