THE other day, our house helper asked me if I was going to vote in the May elections and I said yes. She has not been out of the house since 2020 except for her vaccinations because she has allergic rhinitis and is very afraid to get Covid. I said we could probably rent a car so we could all go together and she replied, “Okay, Ate, mag ambag na lang ako sa bayad [I will contribute to the cost].”
I have no intention of taking any money from Rose but I am amazed at how dedicated she is as a voter. She said hers is only one vote and she will make it count.
First, a disclaimer. There is nothing political about this post. I will not talk about politicians or who I will vote for.
It took a plebiscite in 1937 for women in the Philippines to be allowed to vote. Before that plebiscite, women were considered extensions of their husbands or fathers. Thus, they had no business participating in government affairs.
But a provision was added to the 1935 Constitution stating that women would be allowed to vote if, in a plebiscite, at least 300,000 qualified women shall vote affirmatively on the matter. During the April 30, 1937 plebiscite, 447,725 Filipino women cast their votes in favor of their right to vote.
So, yes, it’s been 85 years since women were allowed to vote in the Philippines and since then, we’ve had two female presidents and a female vice president.
Another change in the Philippine electoral process is automation. The first automated electoral process on a nationwide scale was first enforced in the 2010 elections, which was won by Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.
It’s not a perfect system as there have been malfunctions, glitches and faults in the system. Automation still hasn’t completely prevented vote-buying, intimidation of voters and other irregularities but if I dare say it, the Philippine electoral process has come a long way from 1984 when the data were transmitted by voting precincts to the Commission on Elections via telex (if you remember what this is, you are old).
After this, technicians would tabulate (this was a big word back in the day) the data on their desktop computers. The National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections was a non-government group accredited to conduct “Operation Quick Count,” a parallel but unofficial tabulation.
I remember being so fascinated with the Comelec vs Namfrel tabulations aired side by side on TV back in the day.
In 2007, Republic Act No. 9369 amended the 1997 law to implement the use of automated systems in the next election. This gave access to persons with disability and people lacking in literacy to vote.
In 2008, the first region in the Philippines to conduct electronic voting in all of its provinces was the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao.
In 2010, the automation of elections was implemented in the Philippines with OMR technology provided by Smartmatic.
The election management system (EMS), which sets up the automation of the polls and manages election-related data, is what makes the Philippine automated election system work.
What the election management system does is to import pre-election data files, like the number of registered voters and details on candidates. In addition, EMS defines and prepares ballot templates for each town and city nationwide, and creates location-specific configuration files for the voting machines and canvassing centers. Further, it creates report templates for the election results.
The most popular hardware in the automated election system is the PCOS, or the precinct count optical scan.
In 2016, a breach in the Comelec system was allegedly perpetrated by hackers while another group defaced the Comelec’s web site.
Recently, there were reports of another security breach but the Comelec said this involved election software provider Smartmatic’s internal organization and activities and not voters’ data.
The person responsible for the leak was allegedly a Smartmatic employee, who reportedly downloaded materials and then shared them with individuals who were said to have tried blackmailing the company. A Smartmatic representative said no information related to the elections was leaked.
The National Bureau of Investigation has launched an investigation on the alleged security breach and Comelec said it was waiting for the report.
As a voter, I will trust the sanctity of the election process and hope for the best, but I will be vigilant in exercising my rights.
Image credits: Manny Becerra on Unsplash