COMELEC's State of Preparedness for the May 14 Elections

Alfredo Benipayo
Chairman, Commission on Elections
May 4, 2001

Page 2

Thus, in March 2001, we began producing ballots at the National Printing Office. On the last count, National Printing Office has already printed and delivered more than 37 million ballots. This should represent approximately 99.8% past completion. Likewise, on March 16, 2001, we started running election returns through the presses of our security printer. But, fortunately, today, the printing of election returns is 100% completed. All that remains is for the returns to be packed and shipped by the 8th of May. Shipping will already have been completed. Incidentally, just the other day, we resolved in the commission that the official ballots as well as the election returns would be taken from our office directly by the provincial election supervisors. They would accompany all these ballots and official election returns. Unlike in the previous years, we would just ship them. Now, when the provincial election supervisors will come here, they would get all of these accountable forms, and they will be accompanied by security, marines as well as representatives of the various political parties. Now, once these ballots and official returns and other documents have been received from the presses, they are immediately verified, packed, and shipped by many teams of workers working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including holidays.

We have also just recently resolved the problem of ballot boxes. Ironically, the efforts that went into solving this problem have been misinterpreted. You see, the COMELEC needs some 270,000 ballot boxes to use in the elections. Of these 270,000 boxes, about 172,000, or more than half, were in the custody of the Senate Electoral Tribunal because of the electoral protests filed by Roberto Pagdanganan and Edcel Lagman. And the protests have not been disposed off. Now, when I called a meeting of the senior staff on my first week in office, I asked them, "How many ballot boxes do we need?" They said this much. I asked them whether we shall order all of them. They said "no" since we have about 170,000 which we can use. Since these two candidates, Pagdanganan and Lagman, have already filed certificates of candidacy for the senate, it was assumed that the electoral protest would already be rendered moot following a decision of the Supreme Court in one case, and that is the Defensor Santiago petition. So, we assumed that we could use these ballot boxes, more than 170,000 of it. But then, weeks before elections, when we were already trying to recover these ballot boxes and to empty them off for use in this coming election, we got the resolution from the Senate Tribunal telling us that we could not use those ballot boxes. More than 170,000 ballot boxes we could not use. It represented more than half of what we needed, so I went into a state of panic. I said, how can we hold election without ballot boxes and three weeks to go. We could not possibly get them manufactured. Even if we get all those involved in making ballot boxes in the Philippines, we can't finish 170,000 ballot boxes in three weeks. So, the solution became evident. I said, the only way is to talk the two candidates into withdrawing their protests. I called up Obet Pagdanganan. I got in touch with him by cellphone. I told him, "Obet, I want to talk to you tonight." "Can you tell me what it is all about?" I just said, "It's very urgent and very important". "Tell me where we'll meet." I said, "Let's meet at Mario's in Quezon City." So, fortunately, he was available. We met. We were supposed to meet at 7 p.m. but he came late because of the traffic. He asked me what it's all about. I said, "I want you to do an act of patriotism". "What?" "I wanted you to withdraw your protests." He asked why. I explained the situation to him. "Whether we will hold an election or not depends on you." I made him feel guilty about it. He said, "Well, if that is the situation, I would withdraw." I said, "Thanks, I knew you would do that." So, one-half of the problems have been solved. But, more ballot boxes were involved in the protest of Lagman. So, that same evening, I thought I should get in touch with Edcel. I got him when he was in Sorsogon. I said, "Edcel, when will you be in Manila? And he said, "Tomorrow, I'll be flying in the morning." "Can we meet for lunch?" And he says, "Okay, but what is it all about? What's the agenda?" I said, "Very urgent, very important. You're the man of the hour". So, we met in Manila Pavilion. I presented the problem to him. Very easily, he said, "If that is the situation, I will withdraw." Thanks God, I have no more problem on ballot boxes. That's how we solved the problem of ballot boxes. I hope that's the last crisis we will face before the election.

Well, while talks with the two candidates were going on, we were not standing still with the delivery of ballot boxes to the rest of the country. By the middle of this week, we had already completed delivery of ballot boxes to the provincial areas. As far as the provinces are concerned, we now only have to contend with the deliveries to meet the occasional need for more boxes for storage and transmission of ballots. National Capital Region deliveries, on the other hand, were begun earlier this week and are scheduled to be completed by next week.

Now, aside from logistical considerations, security concerns have also been paramount. As any boardroom general will tell you, "It is never wise to rely solely on the strength of your attack and thus ignore the weakness of your defenses. To this end, we have instituted a number of security measures that will protect the sanctity of the ballot. The physical security of the ballots and election returns and other election documents was guaranteed by several marine contingents who stood on 24-hour guard at the various printing presses where the documents were being printed. They refused entry to anyone who can't produce an ID. They searched everyone who attempted to leave the premises. They even rode with shotgun on all deliveries. On top of the tight guard mounted by the marines, the very paper on which the ballot & election returns are printed boasts of security features that make it very easy to identify fake forms from the true one. Ballot paper has a unique watermark that no one else has. The carbon paper we use for election returns is one of a kind that the COMELEC supplier is also the sole manufacturer. In fact, in both cases, the papers are reactive to certain common chemicals. This means that in case of doubt, we can immediately test the papers and determine authenticity. Even the very printing on the paper is such that the paper it operates as a security device. I cannot, of course, go into details but, suffice it to say, precautions with the paper and printing alone would make substitution of ballot & election returns very nearly impossible.

Still, cheating in election is not limited to switching of ballots or tampering with election returns. Thus, in our general instructions to the Board of Election Inspectors and the Board of Canvassers, we have instituted procedures and methods aimed at reducing the possibility of other more subtle forms of cheating. For instance, we instruct the Chairman of the Board of Election Inspector to read the ballot serial number out loud twice. First, when he gives the ballot to the voter and again before the voter deposits the ballot in a ballot box. If the serial number doesn't match, then substitution of ballots is proven to have occurred. Another example would be that both tabulators are now required to affix their signatures on statements of votes prepared by the Board of Canvassers. Our experience with "dagdag-bawas" has taught us that the lack of accountability of tabulators is a key factor in protecting the identity of those who master-minded the cheating. Being cloaked with anonymity emboldens these master-minds, some of whom turned out to be the candidates themselves.

On another front, the success of any electoral exercise requires successful information dissemination campaign that will achieve the following objectives: make it known that there will be elections; make it known when, where, and how the electoral exercise will be conducted; and, instill in the voters the awareness that they too have a stake in assuring clean, honest and credible election. Again, when I entered the COMELEC, very little work has been done in this area. In fairness, however, the country was still in euphoric afterglow of the so-called EDSA II experience. Prior to that, media has focused almost exclusively on the impeachment trial. It was not a big surprise, therefore, that information dissemination campaign for the May 14 election had to start almost from scratch. Today, however, the COMELEC's education and information division under a new director has launched a grassroots voter awareness campaign through a small booklet containing answers to frequently asked questions. What makes this campaign different is that it is couched in layman's terms, leaving technical jargons in favor of easy-to-understand explanations. In making this booklet, we kept firmly in mind that the campaign was meant to communicate vital information to the reader, not make an election lawyer out of him. This information campaign is also distinguished by its approach to the question of dissemination. The booklet will primarily be distributed to the regional directors of the COMELEC who will provide copies to various provincial election supervisors.