THE Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Commission on Elections to activate the vote verification feature of the vote counting machines in compliance with the Automated Election Law to ensure the transparency and integrity of the May 9 elections.
Voting 14-0, the Court en banc granted the petition filed by former senator Richard Gordon seeking to compel the Comelec to enable the feature in the vote counting machines to give voters a printed receipt as required by law.
Court spokesman Theodore Te made the announcement after the magistrates resolved the Gordon petition during an en banc session.
Te said Associate Justice Arturo Brion was unable to participate because he was on leave.
In his petition for mandamus, Gordon, who is also running for the Senate in this year’s elections said the poll body should implement Section 7 (e) of the Automated Election Law, which states that the Voter Verification Paper Audit
Trail or VVPAT is one of the minimum systems capabilities of the automated election system and a major security feature of the vote counting machine.
Gordon said the VVPAT allows every voter to confirm whether or not the machine cast the vote correctly based on the choice of the voter, thereby ensuring the integrity of the elections.
He said the VVPAT is a “critical and indispensable” security feature of the automated voting machine, and one the Comelec must implement.
He added that the Comelec must not be allowed to violate the law as it had done in the 2010 and 2013 elections.
Comelec chairman Andres Bautista earlier said the poll body decided against printing the receipts because it might be used for vote buying and that it would extend the voting period by six to seven hours.
The camp of presidential candidate Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte welcomed the decision, saying it upheld the law on automated elections and would strengthen the credibility of the electoral process.
“This would allay fears of the people that their votes will not be counted properly,” said Duterte spokesman Peter Laviña. With Rio N. Araja