The camp of vice presidential candidate Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Friday filed a complaint against executives of election technology provider Smartmatic for the unauthorized change in the script of the transparency server of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
Charged with a complaint for violation of the Automated Election System Law was Marlon Garcia, the head of Smartmatic’s technical support team who introduced the script change in the transparency server.
In a 14-page complaint-affidavit, Jonathan Dela Cruz, the campaign adviser of Marcos, also named as respondent Elie Moreno, Smartmatic project director; Neil Banigued, a member of the Smartmatic Technical Support Team, and Rouie Peñalba, IT officer of the Comelec who were allegedly involved in the script change.
“The act of ‘tweaking’ the script of the transparency server caused widespread anxiety and concern amongst the nation,” he said.
The lapses in protocol have undermined the credibility and integrity of the 2016 elections,” said Dela Cruz, also the incumbent representative of Abakada Partylist.
Specifically, the respondents were charged for the violation of Sections 35 (b) and (c) of Republic Act No. 8436, as amended by RA 9369, otherwise known as the Automated Elections Law.
Among others, the law prohibits interfering with “the generation, transmission of election results, data or information.”
Dela Cruz said the law also prohibits “gaining or causing access to, using, altering and destroying computer data, program and system software, network, or any computer-related devices, facilities, hardware or equipment, whether classified or declassified.”
Dela Cruz said from the information they gathered, it was clear that the Comelec en banc was not notified of the issue and that the poll body did not authorize Smartmatic to tweak the script of the transparency server.
He noted that the change was only announced to the persons present inside the Transparency Server room after it was made.
In an interview, Dela Cruz clarified that the complaint does not allege cheating but was meant to find out the truth regarding the introduction of the script to the transparency server.
“This is an accusation of irregularity. Whether or not this irregularity affected the results remains to be seen if our request for a system audit is granted by the Comelec,” added lawyer Jose Amor Amorado, head of the internal quick count operation of Marcos.