Gordon tells SC: Sans source code PH can’t proceed with automated polls

Senatorial candidate Richard “Dick” Gordon. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – Without the source code, United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) senatorial candidate Richard Gordon said the country cannot proceed with the automated elections.

“We cannot have automated election without the source code. [The election] will be compromised,” Gordon told the high court during the oral argument Wednesday.

Source code is the programing software of all the computerized voting machines that will undertake the counting, canvassing and transmission of votes on the day of the election.

“What you are saying is that if there is no source code, election can still go on but the counting will be manual,” Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio asked to which Gordon said yes.

Gordon, who was responsible for the passage of Republic Act 9369 or the Automated Elections System together with Bagumbayan-VNP Movement Inc., asked the high court to compel the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to allow political parties and groups to examine the source code.

But when Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno asked if it is enough to grant their petition, Gordon said the review would take about three months.

“The prayer you are asking can no longer be implemented. If the source code is flawed, then the entire 2013 election is flawed. Everything is contaminated already,” Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco said.

“Are you sure that the source code is the heart of the system,” Velasco asked.

“I wasn’t drunk when I wrote the law your Honor,” Gordon said.