Comelec bares two million corrupted biometrics

A woman casts her votes as Commission on Elections Chairman Andres “Andy” Bautista looks on during mock elections aimed at testing the Precinct Automated Tallying System (PATAS) proposed by former Commissioner Augusto Lagman and other IT experts organizations held at Bacoor National High School Annex in Poblacion, Barangay Tabing-Dagat, Bacoor, Cavite on Saturday (PNA photo by Avito C.Dalan)

MANILA — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said that almost 2 million biometrics files of voters given to the central file were found to be corrupted.

Comelec Spokesman James Jimenez said that some 1.9 million biometrics records they received from Election Officers (Eos) in cities and municipalities were damaged.

“The data from the registration centre is being sent to the Central Comelec in a CD format…Later the CD was found to be corrupted,” he said during the mock polls for the Precinct Automated Tallying System (PATaS) or the hybrid election system held at the Bacoor National High School in Bacoor, Cavite on Saturday.

But, the poll body official noted that the original source of the data is intact at the registration centre, where they can get a new file or record.

“But that doesn’t mean that the actual source of the biometrics data is affected. The solution here is simply to ask the registration center to make a new CD,” he explained.

Jimenez said the possible reasons why the CD was corrupted either during the process of burning, transporting or accessing it.

He added that the issue on corrupted files was uncovered during the regular management of their database.

On the other hand, Jimenez reported that over 1,700 biometric records were discovered to have been incomplete and cannot be retrieved as Eos failed to have a back up file, which is part of their requirement.

“There have been some cases wherein…the picture or the fingerprint of the person is not that clear and since there is no back up you cannot recover the file. That totals to about 1,728,” he said.

To resolve the issue, Jimenez said, “We write to them and ask them to return to complete the system (of registration).”

He noted that the Eos who failed to do a back up of the files has already been suspended.