Comelec cheating

KAKAMPI MO ANG BATAS

Atty. Batas Mauricio

Life’s inspirations: “… Cursed is the cheat…” (Malachi 1:14, the Holy Bible).

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 Gordon to SC: Stop Comelec tampering: Here’s a press statement coming from the camp of defeated senatorial candidate Richard Gordon, posted in Facebook by his chief of staff, lawyer Rodolfo “Inky” Reyes: “Gordon is asking the Supreme Court to stop the Commission on Elections from removing the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines used in the May 13 national and local elections from the polling precincts where they have been stationed for the recently-concluded elections.

“In a 14-page Urgent Omnibus Motion with a prayer for the issuance of a temporary restraining order, Gordon asked the high tribunal to direct Chairman SixtoBrillantes to comply with his earlier commitment to provide the petitioners or their designated representatives or information technology experts with a complete compilable digital copy of the source code for the automated election system used in the May 13 polls.

“In asking for the issuance of an order to stop the poll body from removing the PCOS machines from their respective precincts, schoolhouses, or present whereabouts and transferring them to the Comelec warehouses, Gordon said this is necessary to prevent anyone from tampering with the components, contents and software encoded into the machines.

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  TRO sought on PCOS transfer to Comelec : “Gordon, author of Republic Act 9369 or the Automated Elections System Law, pointed out that the issuance of a restraining order would preserve their legal right to determine whether or not the source code encoded or loaded into the PCOS machines are identical to the source code to be provided by the Comelec to the petitioners.

“As a necessary corollary to this Court’s directive for Brillantes to allow the Petitioners’ fair examination and review of the Source Code, it is imperative that the Petitioners and their designated representatives likewise be granted an opportunity to ascertain that the Source Code to be provided by the Respondent for the automated election system of the 13 May 2013 national and local elections are indeed the same Source Code compiled and encoded into the PCOS machines,’ Gordon said in the motion.

“ `Thus, it is imperative for the Respondent to produce and make available to the Petitioners and their designated representatives a complete compilable copy of the Source Code duly recorded on standard optical or similar commercially-available digital media.

A ‘compilable copy’ of computer software is a digital copy of computer software that can be readily transformed, encoded, or `compiled’ into machine-readable binary code and electronically tested,’ he added.

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  Review of PCOS source code to see if tampering is done: “Gordon stressed that it is imperative for the Supreme Court to stop the Comelec or any other party from handling the PCOS machines and possibly tampering with the program installed in them since it would render futile a review and comparison of the source code.

“ `A review of the source code would show any mismatch between the respective hash codes generated from the Source Code and those from the PCOS machines’ embedded software. It would show possible tampering and/or the unlawful adulteration of the Source Code prior to their loading into the PCOS machines used for the 13 May 2013 national and local elections,” Gordon said.

“If the evidence represented by the software actually embedded into the PCOS machines are not preserved through the proper injunctive writs from this Honorable Tribunal, the Respondent may just remove the actual Source Code loaded into the PCOS machines and erase whatever anomaly that it or other unscrupulous individuals may have committed to corrupt the automated election system and subvert the true sovereign will of the people during the 13 May 2013 national and local elections,’ he added…”

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