Comelec says foreign tech interference in midterm polls unlikely

Commission on Elections. INQUIRER FILES

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said foreign interference through technological means in the upcoming midterm polls is unlikely.

However, Comelec Chair George Erwin Garcia stressed that these foreign actors could still interfere through different means.

“We are fully aware and conscious on foreign intervention as a possible means of election irregularity,” Garcia said during his roundtable discussion with INQUIRER.net and the Philippine Daily Inquirer in Makati City on Thursday.

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“But in terms of our technology, it is not likely because we have counter checking measures.”

Garcia noted that the results of the polls will already be determined in each of the 94,000 poll precincts nationwide even before it gets transmitted,
making it very hard for foreign actors to manipulate the results.

The Comelec chief, however, said he is more concerned about possible intervention in matters outside of the poll body.

“We are more concerned on foreign intervention when it comes to giving support,” he said.

“The intervention can come into the form of both value, resources, etc,” he also said.

Garcia said this is now within the purview of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the Anti Money Laundering Authority.

“The problem is, they could use a businessperson to give support to a candidate financially,” he said of the foreign intervenee.

And this financial support could be used to influence the results through vote buying, he noted.

“Our fight here should be against vote-voting,” he said. “Vote-voting is the modern cancer of our democracy.”