This is a blatant lie. Chairman Bautista (and/or his evil advisers from the Comelec mafia) are bloating up the price estimate of each laptop and projector to astronomical levels to deceive the people into thinking that the PATAS / TAPAT [hybrid] system is as expensive as Smartmatic. The mafia prefers to plunder and squander more than 20 billion payable thru the Venezuelan money launderers (more popularly known as Smartmatic) (so that the Comelec mafia gets a bigger kickback) rather than spend less than half of the Smartmatic's total budget (less than 10 billion) where the biggest budget share goes to Filipino Teachers and poll workers.

Proof of Chairman Bautista's ignorance is his statement that the hybrid system requires 4 poll workers per precinct. The 2010 Smartmatic elections used 4 poll workers per precinct. The 2013 Smartmatic elections used 4 poll workers per precinct. What'swrong with using 4 workers per precinct in 2016? Another dishonesty is the claim that Smartmatic needs only 15 billion. Truth: the entirety of that 15 billion go to the vendors (not a single centavo for the Teachers).

COMELEC must be sure your machine are free from the hand of BINAYS syndicate mobster group.

Hybrid polls to cost P16B–Comelec...this is wrong investment...we are producing non productive animals.

Better plant Kamote...talbos pa lang tubo na.

Hybrid polls to cost P16B–Comelec...

P16billion hybrid...it will only produce cross breed of crocs and sharks.

Hybrid polls to cost P16B–Comelec...

Hybrid....better elect organic....purong puro, laki as lupa...our VP Binay.

Hybrid polls to cost P16B–Comelec....

P16billion Hybrid....yeah right, this hybrid, breeds crocodiles.

Hybrid polls to cost P16B–Comelec.

P16B to elect crocodiles....it is not hybrid...it is pure greed.

Hybrid polls to cost P16B–Comelec...

P16 billion?....we are investing so much in this election and yet it yields nothing.
No return of investment.

Those elected are carnivorous.

I think it is great that Philippines is now one of the most expensive countries in the World
.
2015 UK election actual cost ( with approx same amount of voters ) P2.5 billion.or approx P69 per vote cast.

2016 Election to cost either P8 billion or P16 billion. or somewhere between P220 and P450 per vote cast. So just for an election the cost per vote is between 3.2 and 6.7 times more expensive than the UK
.
I can see someone leaving this election with big pockets all of which will have been picked from the working people of the Philippines

Kapag walang budget na several billions of pesos para gastusin tuwing eleksyon, ay wala silang nanakawin. Ganuon kalaki na lang ang gastos tuwing mag-e-eleksyon. Siguradong may mali sa pagpapalakad ang Comelec.

kahit na anong paraan ang gamitin sa botohan eh ganon pa rin,kasi wala naman kasiyahan ang mga magnanakaw na politiko gusto nila manalo para kumita sila at mamuhay na parang hari sa pinas samanatalang yong mga pinoy ay naghihirap.bayan.

Did the Chairman scrutinize the costing presented to him which was done by through-and-through Smartmatic PCOS fanatics. The costing for the Hybrid system seems to be padded by a factor of as much 4 times. Why doesn't he ask independent accountants and IT project mangers to do the comparative costings of the Smartmatic PCOS solution and the Hybrid system in otder to settle this debate ? By cost is not the only issue against the SMARTMATIC PCOS system. Here are some of them: accuracy, transparency, credibility, incompleteness of results, reliability of the system (sabit nang sabit, and a host of so many defects.

billions ang gagastusin sa election para mag vote ang mga stup1d r3tards ng magnanakaw.

cruel joke

what systems are being use in taiwan, japan, korea? what are their costs?
it seems govt just cant get things right.

I am disappointed with the Comelec chair's line of thinking. He applied as chief justice of the Supreme Court and Lourdes Sereno was chosen. Buti na lang hindi siya ang napili. He headed the PCGG and he had a lackluster performance as well there. Why are we so "lucky" to have people in highly sensitive and crucial posts who are lightweights?

Comelec should stop evaluating cost of CLEAN AND HONEST ELECTIONS in financial and monetary terms. Never mind if a completely fool-proof system of canvassing would cost this country TRILLIONS OF PESOS as long as the current culture of Comelec commissioners on the take becomes EXTINCT together with ALL of the politicians in power and are salivating to be in power next year are stopped on their tracks to CHEAT again and again.

iF it can be possible, we must hold elections BY REGION PER DAY so that casting of ballots, canvassing by precint, and collating results are faithfully and carefully monitored and the entire Filipino electorate are apprised in real time. This time, the holding of elections will be much cheaper as the administration of the polls will be by region and there is no need for a more expensive simultaneous holding of elections that local government units take advantage to allocate alleged necessities of poll watching expenditures.

IBOTO ANG BAGO na kandidato kung gusto mo ng pagbabago. Huwag na iboto pag sabit sa unconstitutional DAP ng PNoy Administration, PDAF ni Napoles, BBL at Federalism ng Malaysia-MILF. Pag ang magulang ay naging Presidente na noon, huwag na iboto ang anak na kumakandidatong Presidente -- isa lang dapat kada angkan. Ang ad placement fee ng political infomercials sa TV ay PhP450,000 yan per 30 seconds -- huwag na iboto ang mga politikong gumagastos ng ganyan kalaki -- lalo na yang mga politikong hindi naman bilyonaryo. Huwag na iboto yang mga partido na tikum ang bibig o malambot ang stand sa Sabah claim kasi nabayaran na yan ng Malaysia. Ang boto mo hindi yan taya sa sugal na may premyo pag winnable ang binoto mo. Ikaw na botante at ang taong bayan ang talo pag yang winnable ang binoto mo. Iboto mo yung sumasagot sa mga tanong mo. Di na bale kahit mukhang hindi winnable kasi walang posters at walang lumalabas na infomercial sa mainstream mass media basta madali mo naman makilala kasi sumasagot pag tinatanong mo sa FB.

Comelec should go for automated election next year. Manual election or hybrid election is more prone to cheating.

existing law requires automated polls. they have done this in the past two elections. why the hesitation now? what are they waiting for? manna from heaven?

Buti man lang kasi kung may kahit anong paraan para malaman ng botante na ang binibilang lang ng machine ay yung mga minarkahan lang ng botante. Mahirap pag saksak mo ng balota sa makina. Bahala na yung makina kung paano niya bibilangin yun.

The problem with automation is that rigged elections have become a thing of the past. With no-brainers, barbaric, cave mentality politicians like most of ours are - relying on the bullet not the ballot to win an election, automated elections are beyond their mental capacities to rig. It requires people with very high IQs to hack the program. Furthermore, naturally the COMELEC's only time to make tons from bribe money is during an election. With an automated election, few people can keep hush hush rigging the election. That will be the Office of the President, and obviously to make their "manok" win. That is what the opposition does not want. They want equal opportunity to "make daya."

Nako po, Noy admin should not give in to hybrid system na gusto nang politicians. Yung TRO naman nang SC is dapat maayos ang bidding nang refurbishment nang PCOS. We had the best election using PCOS in 2010 presidential election so why revert to hybrid. Ang mga tiwali lang ang masaya sa hybrid system at babalik na naman tayo sa makalumang panahon. Dota na po ang uso ngayon.

Puro Yabang at Kalokohan lang pala si Lagman. Noon panay ang batikos sa PCOS at masmaganda daw ang technology nya. Yon pala Manual lang din ang bilangan at computerized lang ang transmission ng data kaya useless lang at nadoble pa ang trabaho, gastos at potential na dayaan.
Napakaraming puro Batikos lang ang ginagawa sa Gobyerno gaya ng UNA, BayadMuna, Gabriela, etc. pero kapag hiningi mo ang solusyon mas Palpak at Magastos pa pala sa ginagawa ng Gobyerno ni PNOY!

Well unfortunately it was PNoy admin who could be blame at naudlot ang refurbishing nang PCOS dahil sa "palpak" na bidding nang comelec. Brilliantes et al made a midnight deal with SMARTMATIC for the refurbishing of the machines. The transaction was shoot down by the SC. The SC even commented that the automation counting is still possible kung ayusin lang nang comelec ang process nang bidding. How about doing the proper bidding na and with Brilliantes whose not really brilliant no longer with comelec, I guess maihahabol pa.

Hello Comelec, please do not even consider hybrid (with manual counting), its already 20th century and all should be automated. It's a total humiliation to COMELEC's competency. COMELEC needs a new leader if they are suggesting to go to manual again.

May personal interest itong si Gus Lagman. Di ba niya alam na base sa election law, ang counting of votes ay dapat automated? So going back to manual counting is against the law. Excerpt from Automated Election Law.

REPUBLIC ACT NO. 8436

Section 1. Declaration of policy. — It is the policy of the State to ensure free, orderly, honest, peaceful and credible elections, and assure the secrecy and sanctity of the ballot in order that the results of elections, plebiscites, referenda, and other electoral exercises shall be fast, accurate and reflective of the genuine will of the people.

Sec. 2. Definition of terms. — As used in this Act, the following terms shall mean:

1. Automated election system — a system using appropriate technology for voting and electronic devices to count votes and canvass/consolidate results;

2. Counting machine — a machine that uses an optical scanning/mark—sense reading device or any similar advanced technology to count ballots;

3. Data storage device — a device used to electronically store counting and canvassing results, such as a memory pack or diskette;

4. Computer set — a set of equipment containing regular components, i.e., monitor, central processing unit or CPU, keyboard and printer;

To shut Lagman and his cohorts up, and to make sure candidates don't keep filing protests, why don't they double count the ballots. Use the PCOS to count and transmit the results, then bring the ballots to a centralized provincial office and run it again through high speed optical readers. The fastest machines can count 9,000 ballots an hour and costs a little over US $100k each. 100 to 200 units, depending on how fast we want results, would be enough. This will just serve as a verification process to what the PCOS machine already does.

Problem is no two set of two PCOS machines will ever result in the same counting result if you count the same set of ballots. SO your suggestion would create even more controversy.

This is because PCOS is a mechanical process. It is an analog process not a digital process and it is subject to all kinds of system induced errors. The controversial 2000 US presidential elections in Florida used optical readers to read ballots with punched holes. This is supposed to be more accurate than shaded marks but the system was inaccurate because the "chad" or residual pieces of paper caused the optical readers to make erroneous readings. This election was so controversial and it resulted in BUsh being elected US president even if he lost the popular vote.

There are already so many documented cases in which the PCOS machines can make errors. Misprinted ballots, invisible ink, damaged ballots, creases, tears, etc.

The problem is the law requires a PCOS "optical scanning" machine. But many countries actually use a voting machine where you type in your vote directly by pressing a button. This is much better than PCOS and is used in many countries like India. Pressing a button results in a digital process so the voting machine cannot make a mistake in reading the vote. Of course mistakes are still possible if the voter presses the wrong button.

The Automated election law was written to favor specific technologies and companies instead of mandating a system which can be evaluated as technology evolves.

If the discrepancy of a particular set of ballots is too large, then manual counting of these ballots can be done to figure out why that was the case. The first count should be the prevailing result, while the second count is just a check and balance system. I actually expect that there will be tampering done on the ballots on the second count, because that is the reality. But the high speed counting machines can segregate the ballots that have overvotes and spurious markings. It will not be a perfect system, but it should stop frivilous claims of cheating. The accuracy rates of these machines run at 99.9+%, so it will be far mote accurate than any hybrid system.

As for the direct voting systems that you advocate, that is actually a good idea except that there is a need for a paper trail. Giving the voter a copy of their vote is a bad idea given that this will be used as proof by vote buyers.

In the Brazilian system I saw twenty years ago, a paper receipt for each voter was printed and deposited in a ballot box attached to the voting machine. A final Tally sheet was printed by the machine at the end of voting for the officials to sign. The copy of the rally sheet was also printed and automatically stored in the transparent plastic ballot box.

Another problem of a direct voting system is that it might be slowed down if voters take too long to vote. Queuing might be an issue, resulting in the need to purchase around 3 to 5 times as many machines than the current PCOS. Maybe if cheap tablets can be modified and turned into secure voting devices, then this may be financially feasible.

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among the three options, while expensive at more or less P10 B the best ay ang pag-lease ng bagong optical mark reader's (OMR). Tutal kung kaya namang abutin ng budget ng Comelec, they should go for the best option. This is an election where the presidency is at stake, and so they should not settle for better (refurbishment of old PCOS machines) and good (hybrid) option,

We have had full manual elections for all elections prior to 2010 so to say that we will require 900,000 teachers and we only have 630,000 teachers available doesn't make sense. It would imply that previous to 2010, we would never be able to handle a manual election.

Secondly, if there are a total of 300,000 precincts, how can we require 900,000 teachers? We all know that many precincts are combined during election day. In fact there are only 82,000 PCOS machines. If there are 100,000 groups of voting booths at 4 teachers per voting booth group, each handling only three precincts or around 600 voters, then there are only 400,000 BEIs needed. At 4,300 per BEI that is a total of 1.7B. Either way, you would still have to pay about the same amount for BEIs whatever system in use. Watchers are not paid by the Comelec. They are paid by the candidates or they are volunteers.

You would not need 300,000 laptops since the laptop would only be used to tally the votes in a group of voting booths. So the number of notebooks needed to enter this data in a reasonable amount of time would be a lot less. If we use 3 precincts per notebook this would need 100,000 notebooks. At 30,000 per notebook, this would only be around 3B.Throw in an OHP will require another 20,000 or so that would bring the total to around 2B. (actual number of notebooks and projectors could be a lot less.) Worse case of around 600 voters in 3 precincts per notebook used for the tally with OHP would take around three to five hours to complete the tally, similar to how long it takes during a manual election tally. Most precincts will have a lot less than 200 voters each so tallying will go significantly faster.

Overall the numbers of Mr. Lagman seem reasonable at 5B for the entire system. In reality, the labor cost would not be significantly different for the PCOS system. It's hard to see how the Comelec came up with the 16B cost.

I don't know about the PATAS system and the so called glitches, but a viable hybrid system is very possible. Many countries use one. In the recent Greek referendum, you could see on CNN that they were using manual ballots. How is it possible that the referendum results were known by the same evening? Because the ballots were surely counted and the results were entered in a computer and automatically collated. A hybrid system! There is just no other way to do the tally correctly in a manual election except by doing it "Hybrid".

I agree with Mr. LAgman in that a hybrid system is somewhat more transparent. The watchers will actually get to look over the shoulders of the BEIs and see the votes being counted on the projector screen, unlike in a PCOS machine where no one knows if the PCOS machine misread a vote. Once the votes are counted, the Tally can be automatically uploaded to a website so that everyone including the watchers can see the Tally result instantly on their smartphones and tablets or PCs. SO if there is a discrepancy, they can file a pre-proclamation protest, before the proclamation is done by the Comelec or the Congress.

Of course, with the PCOS, if the results are also immediately published, the resulting data will also be there, but there always remains a question whether the PCOS actually reported the right number of votes. You would never know unless the ballot box is opened during a protest.

Many countries, even modern countries use a hybrid system. I have witnessed local elections in the US 20 years ago where the votes are cast manually yet they are able to get the election results out much faster because they use a hybrid system which uses computers for the consolidation of the tallies, instead of the antiquated system of using canvassers with calculators that used to be the system in the Philippines before 2010.

Using a PCOS is not the only alternative. Many critics of the PCOS point out its shortcomings mostly having to do with errors inherent in the optical mechanical system of counting votes which is prone to error. A carefully placed misprint on the vote sheet which might be invisible to the human eye can cause PCOS errors as has already been proven in the past. Also because a PCOS relies on a mechanical system, it is prone to breakdown. This is the reason why such a large amount is necessary to refurbish the machines every election.

DOn't get me wrong. I think that automated voting machines are better than a hybrid system. I just don't think that a PCOS system is a good choice because a voter puts his vote on paper and the machine needs to interpret the vote. The controversial elections in Florida that got Bush elected over Gore used a type of PCOS machine that was criticized as very prone to errors. I would prefer a simple low cost but secure and reliable voting terminal like I saw used in Brazil around 20 years ago where you enter your vote using a keypad directly into the automated voting machine which prints a "receipt" that is stored in the attached ballot box. Back then the data would be written onto a diskette and then collated on a PC and uploaded via modem. This was way before there was any kind of broadband. Security was maintained by keeping strict security protocols. An election using automated voting machines would also be able to get the tally done much faster so in pronciple the vote result is known when the voting center closes.

However, until we have an automated voter machine system that is not controversial, a hybrid system would be a much more familiar and similarly transparent system, and possibly much cheaper, at least compared to the expensive and complicated PCOS machine.

Lastly, I like the idea that the notebooks and projectors would be donated to the schools after the election. Spending 5B for computers for schools every three years to me is money well spent.

If we have 300,000 precincts, then we would need at least 900,000 teachers. Each precinct has about 50-60 voters. The Board of Election Officials per precinct is composed of 3 teachers. That is not counting the BE Inspectors, and the canvassing people. When we had PCOS machines, we were grouping 2-4 precincts into a single cluster, so we needed less machines. I would hazard a guess that if we went to manual counting, we can't use clustering as it would take too long. Counting the votes for various positions for 60 votes already takes several hours. Imagine if you are counting 1-300.
Just a thought.

I think the best option is to lease new optical mark readers(OMR). New machines are usually better than refurbished machines.