THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday dismissed as “pure scammers” the three arrested hackers who claim they have the capability to manipulate the results of the 2022 national and local polls.
In a press conference, Elections Commissioner Marlon Casquejo said the three individuals arrested by the authorities on Saturday have been offering false claims to prospective clients in exchange for large sums of money.
“They pretend to know that they can hack our system when, in fact, they cannot do that,” said Casquejo, stressing: “That’s impossible. They are pure scammers.”
The poll official said the automated election system used by the Comelec is highly secured.
“They can try, but they cannot manipulate the result of the elections. That’s how secure our system is when it comes to the election,” said Casquejo.
The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) has earlier said that the three hackers arrested supposedly made claims that they can manipulate the results of the May 9, 2022 national and local elections.
This, they said, as they were connected to the former Smartmatic employee who surrendered to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) over his supposed involvement in a security breach case.
In a bid to show their confidence in the system, the Comelec said it will provide more political parties access to the transparency server.
According to Casquejo, they will no longer limit the transparency server, which will be based at the University of Santo Tomas (UST), to the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas, the dominant majority party, dominant minority party, and the citizens arm, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV).
“For the full transparency, we included the 10 major political parties, which was approved by the en banc. So the 10 major political parties will also have access to our transparency server,” said Casquejo.
The political parties in the running for the dominant majority and minority parties and major political parties are Partido Demokratiko Pilipino—Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), National Unity Party (NUP), Aksyon Demokratiko, Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP), Nacionalista Party (NP), Liberal Party (LP), Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP), United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), Lakas-Christian Muslim Demokrats (Lakas-CMD), Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), Partido Para Sa Demokratikong Reforma, and Akbayan Citizens Action Party (Akbayan).
“When we say access to the transparency server, they will be receiving raw data or the files coming from each precinct transmitted. These political parties will get such data,” said Casquejo.
