Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Garcia on Monday denied allegations that the poll body used a different version of software in the automated counting machines (ACMs) for the May 2025 elections to manipulate the results in favor of the administration.
A group of religious leaders, former officials, and civil society organizations lodged a complaint with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) against Garcia and other poll officials regarding the purported meddling with the software utilized in the elections.
The Comelec chief denied that the certified and audited software used in the automated counting machines for the midterm polls was substituted from version 3.4.0 to version 3.5.0.
“We cannot ignore these kinds of complaints because they are part of democracy. After all, we have repeatedly answered all the issues they have raised with all due respect. That is part of our job,” Garcia said.
He said that the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) could confirm that the Comelec utilized only the ACMs equipped with the 3.5.0 software version during the elections.
“The PPCRV itself prepared a report… They mentioned, ‘We were there.’ They were present when the trusted build was established, and they observed that it was indeed 3.5.0, not 3.4.0,” Garcia said.
“The best evidence for that, do the results sent from the precinct machines match everything received from the servers? The PPCRV has an accuracy of 99.909%. Our random manual audit, 99.9972%,” he added.
