Comelec uses plastic seals instead of padlocks

MANILA, Philippines—The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is expecting to save millions of pesos by replacing the padlocks on ballot boxes with serialized plastic seals and by forgoing the purchase of thumbmarkers used in getting the thumbmarks of voters.
Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. told reporters that they are replacing padlocks because they are heavy and bulky and do not have serial numbers. They can also be easily opened and closed again without leaving any signs of tampering, he said.
“Padlocks are expensive and heavy. We decided to use small plastics seals that have serial numbers,” Brillantes said. “If it is tampered it cannot be replaced [and] we can check it through its serial number.”
Padlocks with key would cost around P125 per unit while the plastic seals cost around P30 per unit. At least 270,600 units of padlocks are needed or 452,000 units of plastic seals.
A ballot box would require at least four padlocks or seals.
Brilantes said that the padlocks would have cost the Comelec around P32.4 million while plastic seals, based on computations, will cost around P14 million.
“That’s a big difference, more than 50 percent would be saved. The padlock is the most expensive,” Brillantes said.
“Under an automated system, the ballots do not require so much protection because there are already picture images [of the ballots],” he said.
Brillantes also said that voters will no longer have to place their thumbmarks when they vote. They will only have to put their signatures.
“When voters have their thumbmarks taken before voting, it might smudge on the ballot,” Brillantes said.
The ballots have a tendency to be rejected by the Precint Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines if there are stray marks on it.
“Technical examination on whether the person voted will depend on the signature,” Brillantes said. “Anyway biometrics of voters now have photos.”
Because they no longer need thumbmarks, the Comelec will be able to save around P12.4 million from the purchase of thumbmarkers which cost P24 each, Brillantes said.

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Most crew leaves US Navy ship stuck on coral reef in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — Most of the sailors on a U.S. Navy minesweeper that struck a coral reef in the Philippines left the ship Friday for safety reasons after initial efforts to free the vessel failed, the Navy said.
The ship ran aground Thursday while in transit through the Tubbataha National Marine Park, a coral sanctuary in the Sulu Sea, 640 kilometers (400 miles) southwest of Manila. There were no injuries or oil leaks, and Philippine authorities were trying to evaluate damage to the protected coral reef, designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
The U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet said 72 of the 79 crew of the USS Guardian were transferred to a military support vessel by small boat. A small team of personnel will remain aboard and attempt to free the ship with minimal environmental impact, the statement said. The remaining seven sailors, including the commanding and the executive officer, will also be transferred if conditions become unsafe.
Philippine officials said the weather was choppy Friday with strong winds and rough seas.
The World Wide Fund for Nature Philippines said that according to an initial visual inspection, the 68-meter- (74-yard-) long, 1,300-ton Guardian damaged at least 10 meters (yards) of the reef. Aerial photographs provided by the Philippine military showed the ship’s bow sitting atop corals in shallow turquoise waters. The stern was floating in the deep blue waters. The Navy said the cause of the grounding, which took place around 2 a.m. Thursday, was under investigation.
Angelique Songco, head of the government’s Protected Area Management Board, said it was unclear how much of the reef was damaged. She said the government imposes a fine of about $300 per square meter (yard) of damaged coral.
In 2005, the environmental group Greenpeace was fined almost $7,000 after its flagship struck a reef in the same area.
Songco said that park rangers were not allowed to board the ship for inspection and were told to contact the U.S. Embassy in Manila. Their radio calls to the ship were ignored, she said. The U.S. Navy statement said that “the government of the Philippines was promptly informed of the incident and is being updated regularly.”
Philippine military spokesman Maj. Oliver Banaria said the U.S. Navy did not request assistance from the Philippines.
U.S. Navy ships have stepped up visits to Philippine ports for refueling, rest and recreation, plus joint military exercises as a result of a redeployment of U.S. forces in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Philippines, a U.S. defense treaty ally, has been entangled in a territorial dispute with China in the South China Sea.

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Philippines Imposes Gun Ban to Stop Poll Violence

MANILA, Philippines — A 150-day ban on the carrying of firearms outside residences across the Philippines began on Sunday to prevent violence that could erupt during May 13 congressional and local elections in a country awash with weapons and plagued by a history of deadly poll rivalries.
Commission on Elections Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said the ban, which ends June 12, suspends all permits to carry firearms in public areas and exempts only top officials, on-duty troops and police, and people facing threats. Violators could be jailed up to six years.
Election and police officials staged a march in metropolitan Manila and inspected security checkpoints to dramatize their call for peaceful mid-term elections—an often-futile goal in a country where rivalry for power among old and new political clans has been blamed for electoral violence and fraud in past years.
In the country’s worst elections-related violence, 58 people, including 32 media workers, were killed by more than 100 gunmen in a 2009 massacre blamed on a political rivalry between two powerful clans in southern Maguindanao Province. The existence of private militias and more than half a million unlicensed firearms have fueled fears of violence, officials said.
Army-backed police contingents began to enforce the ban on guns and armed bodyguards, especially in about 800 towns in 15 provinces, including Maguindanao, considered security hotspots because of a recent history of election violence or the presence of private armed groups, Elections Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said.
Police have identified at least 60 privately maintained militias across the country, along with 43 criminal gangs, which could be tapped by candidates in the elections, Sarmiento said, adding that a government crackdown was under way to hunt down and dismantle those groups.
In Maguindanao on Sunday, army troops and police manned checkpoints and staked out bus stations and other crowded public areas, checking people for guns.
President Benigno Aquino III said Saturday that aside from aiming for peaceful elections, a crackdown against illegal firearms and private militias was launched to reinforce law and order in communities following a number of widely publicized killings that have revived a debate over gun control.
The crackdown has so far led to the seizure of 249 firearms and the arrest of more than 100 members of privately run armed groups. Police have also made home visits to more than 25,000 gun owners with expired permits to ask them to renew the licenses or face confiscation of their firearms, Aquino told an anti-crime convention.
An anti-gun group has proposed that the elections firearms ban be made permanent, but Aquino, a known gun enthusiast, has wondered whether such a total gun ban or better law enforcement could deter criminals and gunslingers.
Around 50 million Filipinos have registered to elect more than 18,000 national and local government officials, including nearly 300 members of the Senate and the House of Representatives, on May 13. Simultaneous elections will also be held in a five-province Muslim autonomous region in the country’s south that is notorious for poll violence and fraud.
As in the 2010 presidential election, optical counting machines will be used to tally votes to speed up the notoriously slow hand-counting of ballots that fostered cheating, violence and unrest in the past, Sarmiento said.
But such automation cannot prevent vote-buying and intimidation, he said.
“There’s danger because of the armed groups,” Sarmiento said. “My other fear is there might be massive vote-buying.”

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