By Raymond Carl Dela Cruz
MANILA – The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is reviewing reports of transmission variances of election results during the May 12 midterm elections, assuring the public that there is “no cause for alarm.”
DICT Secretary Henry Aguda directed the DICT Cybersecurity Bureau to coordinate with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and other relevant agencies to verify and clarify the reports.
In a statement on Tuesday, the DICT said initial assessment suggests that transmissions from thousands of precincts were duplicated during consolidation on the servers of several poll watchers.
“(However), it does not significantly affect the official results and the integrity of the votes,” it said.
These poll watchers include the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP), Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL), Dominant Minority Party, and Dominant Majority Party.
“The duplication was resolved by proper filtering to get the accurate data,” it said.
It assured the public of the integrity of the recently concluded elections and that more information would be given after the review.
“There is no cause for alarm. The election results can still be verified and validated through the printed copies of the election returns,” it said.
On Tuesday, the PPCRV said it experienced unexpected technical issues that delayed the release of its usual election data reports due to differences in file formats and data inconsistencies.
However, the group confirmed that the data it received was accurate after further verification and proper filtering of duplicated entries. (PNA)
