MANILA, Philippines?Whistle-blower Rodolfo ?Jun? Lozada, an engineer and information technology expert, said Wednesday the automation of the May elections could cost the government an additional P3 billion to ensure 100 percent transmission of results.

Lozada said he looked over the election automation plan and discovered that neither the Commission on Elections (Comelec) nor the counting machine supplier Smartmatic TIM had made provisions for the installation of satellite equipment and other things necessary for mobile communication in all polling places around the country.

At the Fernandina Media Forum at Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan City, he said the National Telecommunications Commission had revealed that only 63 percent of the polling places had adequate GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) network coverage.

Lozada, who blew the whistle on the government?s scandal-ridden national broadband network deal with the ZTE Corp. of China in 2008, estimates that the satellite equipment needed to make up for the remaining 37 percent could cost P3 billion.

?The contract with Smartmatic did not specify any provisions for this at all,? he said.

?No Filipino company in its right mind would shoulder that P3 billion out of the goodness of its heart, just to see that the elections would be credible,? he added.

Lozada also warned that the possibility of cheating through the use of signal jamming equipment that has reportedly made its way into the country was ?high.?

Another cause for concern was the long delay in the training of teachers who will serve as election inspectors, Lozada added.

He concluded that the Comelec was not yet ready for full automation, and should therefore prepare for the possibility of reverting to the manual system.

?At least with manual voting, they can guard the process with heightened vigilance. With automation, they may be vigilant, but what are they guarding against exactly?? Lozada said. With a report by Philip C. Tubeza