Comelec to submit documents explaining fast transmission of May 2022 poll results

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Saturday said it would submit the documents explaining the fast transmission of 2022 poll results to the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee (JCOC) next week.

Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco confirmed that they received a letter asking for an explanation on the transmission speed from poll watchdog groups.

Laudiangco said the documents are now with poll commissioner Marlon Casquejo and would be delivered to the oversight committee after the final approval of the commission en banc.

“Ang amin pong tugon dahil ito ay panghihingi ng datos na dapat naman ay idisclose ng Comelec, ito po ay buo naming ibibigay sa Joint Congressional Oversight Committee na siya pong nakaoversight sa automated elections at siya dapat tumanggap ng datos sa eleksyon,” he said in a radio interview.

(Our response, since this is a request for data that should be disclosed by the Comelec, is we will give all of it to the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee which oversees the automated elections and should receive the election data.)

He said they are just waiting for the final approval of the commission en banc regarding the response and final authorization to release the data.

“Pirma na lang po ng final na approval ng commission en banc tungkol sa aming tugon at yung final na authorization para pagrelease ng datos,” Laudiangco said.

“Huwag po kayong mag-alala lahat po ng datos na kanilang hinihingi ay amin pong ibibigay hindi lamang sa kanila pati sa JCOC,” he added.

(The public must not worry, we will provide all the data they ask for not only to them but also to the JCOC.)

Laudiangco said the oversight committee should receive the documents first, as stated under the law, adding that they are not hiding anything from the public.

“Ito po ang malinaw na mensahe ng commission en banc, wala pong tinatagong datos at ilalabas po lahat ito. Ito lamang po ay ibibigay sa kauna unahang forum na inauuthorize ng batas na JCOC, so sila po muna ang aming bibigyan ng mga datos na ito bago po ang ibang partido,” he added.

(This is the clear message of the commission en banc, no data is being hidden and it will all be released. This will only be given to the JCOC first as this is stated under the law, so we will give them this data first before other groups and parties.)

The Comelec said that election returns were transmitted speedily during the May 9 elections, with 70 percent of the returns transmitted in three hours.

Laudiangco also said that there were only a few problems with the vote counting machines (VCMs) in 2019 as they were relatively new. — DVM, GMA News