Comelec/AES certification to be completed this month
Credit to Author: Mayen Jaymalin| Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0800
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections is expecting to have the automated election system (AES), which will be used in the May midterm elections, certified within this month or in April.
Admitting the delay in a letter to the House of Representatives committee on suffrage and election reforms, the Comelec said it is working to its “fullest ability” to come up with the necessary certification.
The Comelec explained that the 2025 national and local elections feature an additional automated system, which is the online voting and counting system and the unbundling of the Secure Electronic Transmission Service.
“These features, which aim for better voting experience and transparency, necessitated a longer time for certification as we await the certification of the separate components,” the Comelec Project Management Office (PMO) explained.
Despite the delay, the PMO noted that the Comelec is still in “better standing” than the previous elections, since the certification is expected to be completed soon.
As part of the legal requirements, the Comelec noted that the source codes of the AES software are expected to be deposited at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas possibly by March 11.
Warning against misinformation, the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center urged the public, especially candidates running for elective posts in the May 2025 polls, against claims by false prophets and supposed IT experts who promise to alter election results in exchange for hundreds of millions.
CICC executive director Alexander Ramos noted that the AES for the May 12 elections was “too complex” and denied claims that it is easy to hack.
Ramos issued the warning after Comelec Chairman George Garcia filed a cyberlibel complaint on Feb. 28 against Jeryll Harold Respicio, a vice mayoral candidate in Reina Mercedes, Isabela, who claimed that the AES has vulnerabilities and is therefore easy to hack. — Rainier Allan Ronda, Emmanuel Tupas