Gordon backs Comelec 2010 automation budget

THE Commission on Elections found an ally in Senator Richard Gordon, father of the Automated Election Law, when the poll body submitted its proposed budget requirement for the automation of the 2010 presidential elections.

Gordon said the Philippine government should allocate adequate funding for the 2010 automated elections because it builds capital for democracy and electoral reforms.

He expressed the sentiment during the hearing of the Joint Oversight Committee on Automated Elections on the proposals of the Comelec for the technologies that will be used and their corresponding budgetary requirements for the 2010 poll automation.

During the hearing, the poll body presented three types of options with their corresponding budgetary requirements, among which is the use of a combination of Direct Recording Electronic or DRE and Optical Mark Reader or OMR technologies.

For his part, Vince Dizon of Smartmatic-Sahi Technology Inc. said their initial calculations indicate that automating 75 to 80 percent of all precincts in the country will be much less than the P56-billion earlier presented by the Comelec. By: Lee Ann L. Pattugalan - Journal online