They added that, "In the automated elections, the transmission stage is priority," said Garcia. "We have to ensure all polling precincts, especially in the provinces can transmit their results immediately after close of polls to speed up the canvassing and prevent tampering of votes."
Telcos are public entities that can be "deputized" by Comelec to help ensure successful automation, according to Garcia, who also sits as commissioner in the Commission on Information and Communications Technology.
Garcia disclosed the poll body is working on a contingency plan to enable precincts in areas with limited network coverage to transmit results to the four Comelec national servers designated for the Senate, House of Representatives, Comelec national board of canvassers and the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas.
The contingency plan will focus on four areas: use of high power transmission or realignment of sectoral antennas, use of high-gain antennas, use of emerging technologies such as SMS or text messaging,
WiMax, WiFi and two-way radio, to transmit results to neighboring cell sites and the use of mobile satellite.
Comelec plans to tap all existing technology platforms to deliver the election results from precinct count optical scan machines (PCOS) to national servers.
Each computerized election result would have an approximate size of 50 kilobytes or comparable to one multimedia messaging service sent via mobile phone, and requires only a few seconds to transmit, Garcia said.
Present in Thursday's meeting at the Comelec headquarters in Manila were representatives from telecom firms Globe Telecom, Smart Communications, PLDT, Digitel, Eastern Telecoms and Mabuhay Satellite.
Also represented were the National Telecommunications Commission, Telecommunications Office, Philippine
Association of Private Telco Companies, Federation of International Cable TV Association and Philippine Cable TV Association.
In the editorial of Manila Times, it absolutely true that the Constitution must be amended. Changes must be made to streamline our government system, reinforce the rule of law and remove provisions that deter our national development. Provisions must be added or removed to make it difficult for officials in all the branches of government to commit abuses and corrupt practices, neglect their duties, fail to do their work, and lie to the people with impunity. There are hundreds of others things that must be done with the 1987 Constitution to make it a more effective fundamental law.
To serve their own ambitions and corrupt ends, unscrupulous, self-serving, and corrupt politicians have made it their project to amend the Constitution by hook or by crook. On June 2, the House majority shamelessly rammed through House Resolution 1109 which would convene Congress to convert itself into a Constituent Assembly (which is how our Constitution calls that body made up of the House and the Senate to deliberate on and vote on amendments to the Constitution to be submitted to the people in a referendum).
But the Constituent Assembly envisioned by the House leadership and majority who passed HR 1109 is one in which members of the House and the Senate would vote jointly—not separately. That would of course nullify the principle that the Congress is bicameral. The overwhelming House majority that comprises four-fifths of the chamber would always outvote all the 23 senators plus the House opposition members.
HR 1109 would then allow a Constituent Assembly to be convened with or without the participation of the senators, who have vowed to reject the whole thing.
The public outcry against HR 1109 made the House leadership freeze HR 1109 in their chamber’s rules committee. But it could be made to slither into life like an ugly snake. It was passed by a massive majority, don’t forget.
sources: inquirer.net
manilatimes.net
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