INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines — The 4G technology can locate the source of a vote, a government official on Monday assured, allaying fears that a vote’s source may be “untraceable.”
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) earlier gave Smartmatic the award for the transmission of votes from 3G to 4G as it would be faster.
However, Senate President Vicente Sotto III, who is also vying for the vice presidency, flagged the change, expressing concern that votes may be transmitted from “untraceable” sources.
“We know that 4G is much faster as compared to 3G. I think the question was: Kaya bang i-locate ‘yung source nung, let’s say, ng isang package?” said Franz De Leon, director of the Department of Science and Technology Representative to the Technical Evaluation Committee during the briefing following the Comelec’s deposit of transmission server source codes to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
(We know that 4G is much faster as compared to 3G. I think the question was: Can the source of a package be located?)
“And with 4G, we can confidently say that yes, it can still be determined kasi meron naman pong, let’s say may IP (internet protocol) address ‘yung source. Meron din pong tinatawag na MAC address — medium access control — for the transmission system. So, mate-trace pa rin po siya,” he further explained.
(And with 4G, we can confidently say that yes, it can still be determined because there is an IP address for the source. There is also what we call a MAC address — medium access control — for the transmission system. So, it can be traced.)
De Leon also noted that there are no “serious impediments” observed amid the shift based on the conducted tests.
“With all the tests being done by the technology provider, as witnessed by Comelec, wala naman pong (there is no) serious impediment with the shift from the 3G to 4G technology,” he said.
The Comelec recently guaranteed the public that a seven-hour delay, which happened in the 2019 midterm polls, will no longer be repeated due to the current capacity of the transparency server.