Manual polls 'a step backwards'

Senate President Franklin Drilon today allayed fears that the 2016 general elections would be manual rather than automated.

With the Supreme Court junking the deal between the Commission on Elections and Smartmatic on the diagnostic, repair and refurbishment of Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines, some quarters had expressed apprehension that there would be no more time for the Comelec to conduct a public bidding, thus manual elections, or even no elections, could be a distinct possibility.

"There's no basis for that. I will not agree to manual elections, because that will again lead to cheating," Drilon explained.

          

"We already have a law that requires automated elections, and the return to manual elections is a step backwards and contrary to the law that says we should have automated elections," he added.

          

Asked whether Congress would give the Comelec additional funds to purchase new machines, Drilon said: "That’s hard to answer. At this point I don’t know how much they will ask us for. And why would they abandon the PCOS machines? They must justify that, because that will cost a lot of money."

          

Drilon said that even with the forthcoming 2016 elections, the Senate would return to work on May 4 to "finish all the reform measures still being deliberated upon."

          

"The best platform for anyone is to show that you do our job well," Drilon added. -end-