Escudero: Hybrid polls susceptible to cheating

Sen. Francis Escudero. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero is urging the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to ditch its plan to use a combination of manual and computerized elections next year and instead exert all efforts to ensure that the 2016 national polls would be fully automated.

Escudero reiterated his objection to the so-called “hybrid” elections after the Comelec stated that the Precinct Automated Tally System (PATaS), which would combine manual and automated processes, remains an option for the poll body in next year’s elections.

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The Comelec, he said, already tested the hybrid system when it conducted a mock poll on June 27 at the Bacoor National High School in Cavite province.

Escudero said that for 2015, the Comelec received a total of P16.8 billion budget but said he would look into spending plan of the agency for the automated polls if only to ensure a clean, orderly and credible 2016 elections.

Escudero, chairman of the Senate committee on finance, said that reverting to manual voting system in 2016 would be a step backward to a process marred by rampant cheating and other fraudulent election practices in the past.

“The proposal for hybrid polls raises the chilling prospect of a wide-scale electoral cheating similar to what happened during the 2004 presidential elections,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.

“It brings back memories of the ‘Hello Garci’ controversy, which had cast doubt on the results of the 2004 presidential elections,” the senator added.

Escudero earlier warned that the poll body was treading on dangerous ground with its proposal to use a hybrid election system next year, saying it would defeat the purpose of computerizing the elections.

“It’s a step backwards after having fully automated the elections previously. Returning to manual elections is a cause for serious concern due to its dangerous implications on the country’s electoral process,” he said.

He said the country could not afford to have another “Hello Garci” scandal, widely considered as the worst electoral fraud in Philippine history.

“Hello Garci” refers to the wiretapped conversation between then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano during the canvassing of presidential votes in 2004.

In that phone conversation, Arroyo supposedly asked “Garci” to make sure she would lead by one million votes over her closest rival, the late actor Fernando Poe Jr. (FPJ)

Escudero, who was then representative of Sorsogon province in Congress, stood as FPJ’s campaign spokesperson. IDL