{"id":222982,"date":"2019-07-15T20:06:29","date_gmt":"2019-07-16T00:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=222982"},"modified":"2019-07-15T20:06:29","modified_gmt":"2019-07-16T00:06:29","slug":"smartmatic-must-shape-up-or-be-replaced-as-tech-provider-dict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/07\/15\/smartmatic-must-shape-up-or-be-replaced-as-tech-provider-dict\/","title":{"rendered":"Smartmatic must shape up or be replaced as tech provider: DICT"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
During an ambush interview at the DICT\u2019s AES technology fair at UP Diliman, Quezon City, Rio said the Commission on Elections (Comelec) may replace Smartmatic with any of several AES providers that are proposing different AES concepts if the company does not change or improve any of its services. (File Photo<\/a>: Department of Information and Communications Technology – DICT\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u2014Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Undersecretary Eliseo Rio, Jr. on Monday said Smartmatic Philippines Inc. faces stiff competition and must improve its service if it hopes to remain as the country\u2019s automated election system (AES) operator.<\/p>\n

During an ambush interview at the DICT\u2019s AES technology fair at UP Diliman, Quezon City, Rio said the Commission on Elections (Comelec) may replace Smartmatic with any of several AES providers that are proposing different AES concepts if the company does not change or improve any of its services.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have to compete now with so many concepts, with so many ideas.\u00a0So kung \u2018yun pa rin ang kanilang ipo-propose, talagang matatalo na sila. So they have to improve<\/em>\u00a0(So, if they propose what they\u2019ve already done in the past, they will lose),\u201d Rio said.<\/p>\n

He, however, clarified that Smartmatic is not being barred from becoming the country\u2019s next AES operator.<\/p>\n

\u201cWala naman talaga nagbabawal sa kanila, except they have to come up with an improved version as per instruction of the President<\/em>(Nobody is preventing them from becoming operator of the next election. But they do have to come up with an improved version as instructed by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte),\u201d Rio said.<\/p>\n

The DICT official said improvements in transparency and employing a form of manual counting will boost the Filipino voters\u2019 confidence in an AES.<\/p>\n

\u201cKung gusto nilang sumali, magkaroon na rin sila ng manual counting na very transparent. Kita ng publiko, ng media, kung paano binilang ng machine ang mga shaded<\/em>\u00a0(If Smartmatic wishes to join, they should have manual counting that\u2019s transparent. The public and the media should be able to see how the machine counted the votes),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rio, however, clarified that the DICT only presented concepts and improvements from other AES providers to the Comelec and that the commission has the last say on the matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndependent po sila. Kung sabihin ng Comelec na Smartmatic pa rin tayo, walang maka-object dun. Pero sasagot sila sa mga tao (They are independent. If Comelec says that Smartmatic will stay, no one can object. But they will answer to the people),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo earlier said the Comelec has legal basis to drop its partnership with Smartmatic after hundreds of vote counting machines and SD cards malfunctioned in the mid-term national and local elections on May 13, 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cKahit anong paliwanag mo, kapag pinagdudahan ka na, may problema ka na. Iyon ang ayaw ni Presidente, iyong nagkakaroon ng pagdududa ang tao<\/em>\u00a0(No matter what explanation you give, if the public doubts you, you have a problem. That\u2019s what the President doesn\u2019t want, that people start to doubt the credibility of the elections),\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u2014Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Undersecretary Eliseo Rio, Jr. on Monday said Smartmatic Philippines Inc. faces stiff competition …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":222983,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-raymond-carl-dela-cruz","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222982"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":222984,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222982\/revisions\/222984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}