Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

Seventeenth Congress
First Regular Session

HOUSE OF REP "ATIVES

Introduced by Representative H. Harry L. Roque Jr.

AN ACT
AMENDING REPUBLIC ACT NO. 8436, SECTION 6 ALSO KNOWN AS “AN
ACT AUTHORIZING THE COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS TO USE AN
AUTOMATED ELECTION SYSTEM IN THE MAY 11, 1998 NATIONAL OR
LOCAL ELECTIONS AND IN SUBSEQUENT NATIONAL AND LOCAL
ELECTORAL EXERCISES,” AS AMENDED BY REPUBLIC ACT NO. 9369, ON
THE MINIMUM SYSTEM CAPABILITIES OF THE AUTOMATED ELECTION
SYSTEM

EXPLANATORY NOTE

The Constitution, Article 5, Section 2, paragraph (1) provides:

The Congress shall provide a system for securing the secrecy and
sanctity of the ballot as well as a system for absentee voting by qualified
Filipinos abroad.

‘The May 2010 Presidential Elections cannot be considered a perfectly executed
implementation of the automated election law. Critics point out the lapses in the way
the Commission on Elections (Comelec) carried out the last national elections, such as
the absence of digital signatures and a weak verification system of the installed
software.

At present, there is no feature that allows for the verification of the software

installed in the PCOS and CCS machines and all other components of the AES

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system. The Hash Code extracted by the Forensic Team from the PCOS machines
used in Antipolo is not the same as the one published on the COMELEC website. The
Hash Code of the software in the PCOS machine is there to ensure that the same copy
of the reviewed software and stored in escrow at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is the
same as those installed in more than 76,000 PCOS machines.

There is therefore a need to amend the automated election law to safeguard the
integrity of the electoral process. While the last election may have been considered
acceptable, there is still a large room for improvement. These proposed amendments
Were submitted by the Center for People Empowerment and Governance to the Joint

Congressional Oversight Committee on the Automated Election System.!

H. HARRY L. ROQUE JR.

' This bill was filed by Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago during the Sixteenth Congress,
Third Regular Session This bill was based on the Legislative Proposals to Improve and Enhance the
Auitomated Elections Law (R.A. No. 9369) by the Center for People Empowerment in Governance
(CENPEG).


Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

Seventeenth Congress
First Regular Session

HOUSE OF REP! “ATIVES
HB. No.

Introduced by Representative H. Harry L. Roque Jr.

AN ACT
AMENDING REPUBLIC ACT NO. 8436, SECTION 6 ALSO KNOWN AS “AN
ACT AUTHORIZING THE COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS TO USE AN
AUTOMATED ELECTION SYSTEM IN THE MAY 11, 1998 NATIONAL OR
LOCAL ELECTIONS AND IN SUBSEQUENT NATIONAL AND LOCAL
ELECTORAL EXERCISES,” AS AMENDED BY REPUBLIC ACT NO. 9369, ON
THE MINIMUM SYSTEM CAPABILITIES OF THE AUTOMATED ELECTION
SYSTEM

Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Philippines
in Congress assembled:

SECTION 1. Republic Act No, 8436, Section 6, as amended by Republic Act
No. 9369, is hereby amended to read as follows:

SEC. 6. Minimum System Capabilities. — The automated election
system must at least have the following functional capabilities:

(a) Adequate security against unauthorized access,

(b) Accuracy in recording and reading of votes as well as
in the tabulation, consolidation, canvassing, electronic transmission,
and storage of results;

(c) Error recovery in case of non-catastrophic failure of device,

(d)System integrity which ensures physical stability and
functioning of the vote recording and counting process;


aw ew

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(c) Prevision—for—veter—verified—paper—audittrail PROVIDE
THE VOTER ASYSTEM OF VERIFICATION TO FIND OUT
WHETHER OR NOT THE MACHINE HAS REGISTERED HIS
CHOICE USING ONEOR MORE OF THE
FOLLOWING ESTABLISHED VOTER — VERIFICATION
PROCEDURES;

(i) VOTER VERIFIED PAPER AUDIT TRAIL (VVPAT)
(ii) VOTER VERIFIED VIDEO AUDIT TRAIL (VVVAT)

(ii) VOTER VERIFIED AUDIO AUDIT TRAIL
(VVAAT)

(iv) VOTER VERIFIED BRAILLE AUDIT TRAIL

(f) System auditability which provides supporting documentation
for verifying the correctness of reported election results;

(g) An election management system for preparing ballots and
programs for use in the casting and counting of votes and to consolidate,
report and display election result in the shortest possible time;

(h) Accessibility to illiterates and disabled DIFFERENTLY-
ABLED voters,

(i) Vote tabulating program for election, referendum or
plebiscite,

(g) Accurate ballot counter,
(k) Data retention provision;

(1) Provide for the safekeeping, storing and archiving of physical
or paper resource used in the election process;

(m) Utilize or generate official ballots as herein defined,

(n) Provide the voter a system of verification to find out whether

or not the machine has registered his choice: and


(0) Configure access control for sensitive system data and

function;

(P)PROVIDE A FEATURE THAT WILL ALLOW
VERIFICATION IF THE SOFTWARE INSTALLED IN ANY
COMPONENT OF THE AES IS ONE AND THE SAME AS THAT
HELD IN ESCROW WITH THE BANGKO SENTRAL NG
PILIPINAS. THE VERIFICATION CODE SHALL BE PRINTED
OUT AND COPIES OF THE PRINTOUT SHALL BE POSTED
ON THE DOOR AND WALL OF THE PRECINCT/
CANVASSING CENTER. THE VERIFICATION SHOULD
BE PART OF THE INITIALIZATION PROCEDURE
EXECUTED BY THE BEI OR BOC;

(Q) PROVIDE THE CAPABILITY OF DIGITAL SIGNING
OF ALL SOPTCOPY DOCUMENTS (ER, COC, SOY, ETC.)
USING COMPUTER-INDUSTRY-STANDARD SECURE
PRIVATE-PUBLIC KEY CRYPTOSYSTEM THAT UTILIZES
ESTABLISHED CERTIFICATE AUTHORITIES OR DTI-
ACCREDITED CERTIFICATE AUTHORITY; AND

(R) PROVIDE THE CAPABILITY OF DIGITAL
SIGNING OF ALL SOFTCOPY DOCUMENTS USING SIGNING
HARDWARE THAT DOES NOT COMPROMISE THE PRIVATE
KEY OF THE SIGNER, SUCH AS BY EMPLOYING
PROCESSOR SMART CARDS FOR REACH SIGNER AND
PROCESSOR SMART CARD READERS FOR’ EACH
COMPUTER EQUIPMENT.

In the procurement of this system, the Commission shall develop
and adopt an evaluation system to ascertain that the above minimum
system capabilities are met. This evaluation system shall be developed
with the assistance of an advisory council. THE COMMISSION IS
REQUIRED TO PROCURE COMPUTER HARDWARE AND

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SOFTWARE SYSTEMS THAT INCLUDE ALL OF THESE
CAPABILITIES.

SECTION 2. Repealing Clause. — All laws, decrees, orders, and issuances, or
portions thereof, which are inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, are hereby

repealed, amended or modified accordingly.

SECTION 3, Effectivity Clause, — This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days
after its publication in the Official Gazette or in two (2) newspapers of general
circulation.

Approved,