Poll watchdog welcomes findings on Bautista’s liability for ‘Comeleak’

Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista. GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Poll watchdog Kontra Daya on Friday welcomed the findings of the National Privacy Commission (NPC) on Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chair Andres Bautista’s liability on massive data breach on April 21 last year, 18 days before the election.

The 2016 hacking of the Comelec website was “one of the worst breaches of a government-controlled database” that resulted in the leak of private information of Filipino voters such as passport information and fingerprint data.

TrendMicro initially reported the leak on April 6, but the Comelec failed to disclose the extent of the breach, which could be a ground for the impeachment of Bautisa if proven guilty.

READ: Commission: Charge Comelec chair for ‘Comeleak’

“The dereliction of duty is even more magnified by the fact that the Comelec website itself was defaced on March 27, thus putting into question the integrity and security of the commission’s information technology apparatus,” Kontra Daya said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Malacañang urged the Comelec to release the result of its investigation into the said hacking.

“We exhort that Comelec release a report of an investigation it conducted on the data leak, if any, to maintain the credibility of the constitutional body and uphold the integrity of the electoral process,” Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said in a statement.

Andanar said that Comelec should come clean and hold itself accountable for the millions of data that became susceptible to risks such as identity theft and fraud.

READ: Malacañang urges Comelec to release result of probe on data leak

Kontra Daya also added that the officials’ previous apologies were not enough and they should all be held liable for the damages they have done. RAM