THE Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Laban ng Bayan party has joined the clamor for the issuance of voter’s receipts in the next election and asked the Supreme Court to compel the Commission on Elections to activate the feature in the vote counting machines.
In a petition, PDP-Laban asked the SC to issue a writ of mandamus ordering the poll body to implement the voter verified paper audit trail feature of the vote counting machines to be used for the polls.
The PDP-Laban, led by Senator Aquilino Pimentel III, through lawyer Ted Contacto stressed that the Comelec has been violating Republic Act No. 9369 (Automated Elections System Law), which requires the VVPAT as part of minimum system capabilities of VCM.
“There should be receipts issued so that the voters would see that their votes were properly counted by the VCM,” the lawyer told reporters.
Petitioner disputed the Comelec’s claims that the use of VVPAT would delay election preparations because it entails compiling a new trusted build or the firmware used in the final configuration of the machines, final ballot design, and data to be used by the AES.
“Regardless of the delay it may cause, our position is that there is law duly enacted by Congress so the Comelec should implement it,” Contacto said.
A similar petition was filed by former senator Richard Gordon and former Manila councilor Greco Belgica, who are both running for senator.
All petitioners shared the belief that the absence of the VVPAT system, which allows voters to verify if their ballots were cast correctly through the issuance of a receipt, showing the names of candidates that they voted for, could jeopardize and compromise the integrity of the elections just like in the two previous automated polls.
They also warned that the absence of such safeguard could allow cheating in the automated polls.
Last week, the SC already ordered the Comelec to answer Gordon’s petition within a non-extendible period of five days.
