Comelec to abide by SC final ruling on issuance of vote receipts

MANILA—The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will abide by the ruling of the Supreme Court (SC) which denied its motion for reconsideration on the latter’s order to issue vote receipts to voters on Election Day.

But, Comelec Chairman Juan Andres Bautista warned that the receipt the machines would issue had no security features as the commission needed time to revise the source code.

“Hindi kakayanin (revise the source code) so ito nag list kami ng agam-agam, risks na pwedeng maganap kung hindi irevise ang source code…Pag-aaralan ang mga risks tapos tingnan natin how best to mitigate these risks…ngayon nakapagdecision ang SC, we submit and basically we comply and we try to do our best an still ensure a credible elections on May 9,” he said in an interview hours after the High Court ruled with finality on their motion for reconsideration on Thursday.

Bautista noted that they would only print a “simple receipt”.

“Ang mangyayari ngayon pagpasok mo ng ballot makikita ‘yung onscreen verification ng 15 seconds, pagkatapos magiimprenta ng resibo. Ang nakalagay lang ‘yung Republic of the Philippines, Comelec. Walang precinct number, walang hashcode, walang security features,” he explained.

Asked on what is the worth of a receipt that do not have security features, he said, “Yung sa legalidad hindi ko masasabi pero ang silbi dyan ngayon ‘yan ay magbibigay ng comfort sa isang botante na tama ang pagbilang ng makina sa kanyang binoto.”

The poll body chief added that for them to put security features in the receipts they would need to conduct a trusted build which would take several days.

“Hindi namin pwedeng lagyan unless magkaroon ng trusted build at masyadong tatagal…May 23 kung may panibagong trusted build. Ang option was kung walang trusted build May 9 (Election Day) kung may panibagong trusted build May 23. Ang pinili ng SC ‘yung una, ‘yun ang aming susundin,” Bautista said.

With this, the Comelec is set to have a special en banc meeting on Friday to discuss the recent ruling and how to implement it.

On Thursday, the High Tribunal denied the Comelec’s MR minutes after the oral arguments on the petition filed by former Senator Richard Gordon.

Poll body officials, headed by Bautista, presented their positions before the SC but the latter stood by its earlier decision.