ELECTIONS chairman George Garcia yesterday said all IP (internet protocol) addresses that will be used and transmission logs during the national and local elections next year will be posted on the website of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for transparency.
In a chance interview during his visit to the DITO Network Operations Center in Taguig City, Garcia said this will be done to ensure that the Comelec is transparent in all its transactions during next year’s elections.
“Pagkatapos na pagkatapos po ng halalan, lahat ng IP addresses ng ginamit ng komisyon, lahat ng transmission logs na nangyari, pati ‘yung mga data na nakalaman doon sa transmission logs ay ilalabas po ng Comelec sa atin pong website upang hindi nagkakaroon pa ng order mula sa Kongreso upang i-produce ‘yan o kaya naman hinihingi ng mga stakeholders natin (Right after the elections, all IP addresses used by the commission, all the transmission logs, including the data in the transmission logs will be posted in the Comelec website so that an order from Congress to produce them or requests from stakeholders will not be necessary anymore),” Garcia said.
Garcia said he also ordered for an investigation on the reported sudden increase in the number of registered voters in some parts of the country.
He said he asked Director Nick Mendros, of Comelec Region 8 (Eastern Visayas), who is now detailed at the Comelec main office in Intramuros to lead a task force for the investigation.
Garcia said his instructions were to find out the reason for increase in registered voters in Makati City, and the migration of a big number of voters to Cagayan de Oro City and Nueva Ecija.
He said it was unusual that the number of registered voters increased by as much as 40 percent in these areas.
“Alamin kung ano ang puno’t dulo nung napakadami ng dagdag na mga botante lalo na diyan sa Makati (City). Kahapon din po ay pinirmahan ng inyong en banc ang dalawang resolusyon na nag-aatas din sa same task force na imbestigahan ang nangyari sa Cagayan de Oro at Nueva Ecija sapagkat napansin namin ang mass migration ng mga tao (We will find out the root cause of this because there was a sudden increase in voters, especially in Makati City. [On Wednesday], the Comelec en banc also signed two resolutions ordering the same task force to investigate the significant number of people who migrated to Cagayan de Oro City and Nueva Ecija),” he said.
“The Comelec would like to go to the bottom of this,” he added.
Garcia said the poll body has come up with a backup plan in case the transmission would fail after the elections.
“May mga plano tayo kung sakaling mag-fail ang transmission using Starlink, puedeng makapag-transmit ‘yung ibang telcos (kung) mag-fail ang transmission ng telcos, may naka standby tayong Starlink (We have a plan in case the transmission using Starlink fails since other telcos can transmit as we have Starlinks on standby),” he said.
At present, Garcia said iOne Resources Inc. has delivered 5,000 units out of the 7,000 units of Starlink satellite equipment it has committed to provide. He said the delivery will be completed by the end of the year.
He said iOne Resources Inc. has started talks with DITO Telecommunity Corporation for the contingency plan.
