Raps filed vs Comelec chair over tech issues in May polls

Comelec Chairman Atty. George Erwin Garcia. | Photo screengrabbed from Comelec.

A group composed of religious leaders and retired military personnel has filed a complaint against Commission on Elections (Comelec) chair George Erwin Garcia over an “unauthorized and illegal code switching” in the automated system used in the May 12 polls.

They also questioned the setup of an ”intermediary” data server that received and processed election results coming from the voting precincts before they could reach the accredited poll watchdogs and media groups.

The complaint, filed at the National Bureau of Investigation on Thursday, said the source code installed in the automated counting machines (ACMs) used during the elections was different from the one reviewed in the final Automated Election System (AES) Source Code Review report.

They said that based on the Final AES report issued on April 30, the ACMs were installed with software version 3.4.0. However, during the final testing and sealing of the ACMs later on May 6, version 3.5.0 was installed in the machines instead.

“No other entity other than the Commission has access to the ACMs or the Source Code for the May 12, 2025, National and Local Elections. Therefore, it could only be the Commission that can commit [to] the switching of the software,” the complaint said.

Issues already answered

In a chance interview on Thursday, Garcia said the Comelec had already answered the issues raised.

“We are not afraid and we are ready to present ourselves, give documents to whoever will be in charge of the investigation,” the Comelec chief said.

The complainants were composed of representatives of the groups under the Alayansa ng Nagkakaisang Mamamayan and the Church Leaders Council for National Transformation.

They include Bishops Colin Bagaforo, Gerry Alminaza, Efraim Tendero, Roberto Gaa, as well as retired generals Generoso Senga, Wilfredo Franco, Alejandro Camagay, and Eliseo Rio. Also joining them are Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong and former Comelec Commissioner Augusto Lagman.

Garcia maintained that software version 3.5.0 was the code used in the ACMs, and argued the Comelec had already received a certification from the Technical Evaluation Committee regarding the system and hardware that were used.

Data Center 3

The complainants also alleged that the Comelec installed an “intermediary server” called Data Center 3, which received, consolidated and processed election results from precincts before they could be received by the media and election watchdogs.

They said Data Center 3 was created to house the transparency servers used by the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), and the media, as well as the majority and minority servers.

“As a result of the unauthorized and illegal code switching and the installation of Data Center 3, only the Central Server of the Commission received transmissions from the ACMs upon the closing of the polling precincts,” the complainants said.

No such server

But Garcia explained that while Data Center 3 housed the servers, there was no such intermediary server. The PPCRV, as well as the minority and majority parties, has its own program that can “clean” the votes to show its “exact” number.

“There are already a lot of agencies, organizations, coalitions and many groups who said that the elections were organized and can be trusted, such as the European Union, Anfrel (Asian Network for Free Elections)… and our PPCRV: 99.999009 percent accuracy is what they’re saying,” he stressed.

The complainants accused the Comelec of violating the Cybercrime Prevention Act and the Election Automation Law.

In all, they said, there were ”55 million” counts of system interference committed by the Comelec, corresponding to the number of ”unlawfully” processed votes.

Any instance of vote tampering constitutes fraud and must be unequivocally condemned,” they said. ”This becomes all the more apparent and pressing when such tampering occurs on a national scale.”