House Committee on Suffrage continues discussions on PCOS machines

Cesar Flores of Smartmatic demonstrates to the House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms how PCOS machines work after issues on whether the company failed to comply with the provisions of Republic Act 9369. KAREN BONCOCAN/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines—House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms on Wednesday continued discussions on the controversial precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.

Committee chairman Dasmariñas City Representative Elpidio Barzaga Jr. presided over the deliberations at one point, asking Smartmatic representatives to demonstrate how the PCOS machines worked in the last elections.

This was following the clamor of non-government agencies for issues on the PCOS machines be explained.

Cebu Representative Pablo Garcia also alleged that the previous elections were not in accordance with the provisions of Republic Act 9369.

Cesar Flores of Smartmatic showed the committee how the PCOS machines worked, saying that the much debated issue on digital signatures was not a scan of a visual signature but a “software.”

Digital signatures, he said, were contained in hash files which would change in the event of manipulation of the machine. “If manipulated, the hash file will be different and it will be rejected.