A CANDIDATE’S DIARY, DAY 27: IT EXPERTS PREPARE WATCHERS FOR D-DAY

With two weeks two go before the elections, Infomation Technology experts and legal advisers have started training the watchers who will guard the conduct of the elections.

The preparation of the watchers for D-Day was one of the things we failed to look into in 2010 and it led to massive cheating at the precinct level with members of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) in many areas who were obviously bribed virtually running everything.

In 2010, nobody from my group checked the testing and the sealing of the PCOS machines, some of which did not work properly, as in the case of Alegria, Pres. Roxas where the result of the test voting was the data transmitted by the PCOS on election day giving me 1 vote.

But what really killed us in 2010 was the last minute order of the COMELEC to replace all the CF cards of the PCOS machines in the Province of North Cotabato.

The replacement CF Cards arrived the night before the elections and there was no way our watchers could have checked the contents of the cards even if they were trained to do it.

The outcome was the incredible results of the elections where in one precinct in Damalasak, Pikit, the contents of the CF card, when decrypted by COMELEC Manila, showed the results of the Presidential elections in Colombia, South America.

This was an irregularity which even COMELEC Chairman Sixto Brillantes was not able to explain during the Senate hearing conducted by Sen. Koko Pimentel last year.

Today, with lessons learned from the last elections, the watchers are being prepared by the IT experts on the complexities of the PCOS machines and advised on what to watch out for.

Legal advisers are also educating them on the laws covering the conduct of the elections and briefing them on their rights as watchers.

In the training conducted in Midsayap last Thursday, watchers from Libungan and Pigcawayan eagerly participated in the discussions and actively asked questions during the session.

During the short talk I gave them, I told the watchers that their performance during election day will determine the future of the province.

I also told them that the months of hardships that I went through holding caucuses and campaigning would go to waste if they do not do they tasks on election day.

Based on the reactions of the watchers, I believe they will live up to the expectations of the our party and make sure that the voice and the will of the people will be heard on election day.

(Photo caption: IT experts show the watchers the different parts and functions of the PCOS machine using a model made out of cardboard.)