Yesterday The Standard, a young Makati-based national newspaper, led with the story headlined "Evidence shows breach in transparency server to 'rig' results" which casts serious doubt as to the safety of the results in the Vice Presidential race. "AN IT expert, who is an accredited observer of the poll watchdog Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, has in his possession evidence that shows the hash code of the transparency server had been breached by Smartmatic officials to introduce a new script that may have “rigged” the results and compromised the entire system in partial and unofficial counting in favor of administration candidates. A few hours after the breach, the IT expert source who requested anonymity, said a “clogging” in the system was observed and the one-million lead of independent vice presidential candidate Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. over his closest rival Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo of the ruling Liberal Party started to narrow down. The source said the “major breach” would now compel Marcos and other senatorial candidates – Francis Tolentino, Senator Sergio Osmena III and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez – who ranked 13th, 14th and 15th, respectively, to question the integrity of the results and demand answers from the Commission on Elections how the violation of protocols could have possibly happened. The source said all the PPCRV’s unofficial and Comelec’s official results would come only from a single source – the transparency server of the Comelec. In an interview at past midnight Thursday, the IT expert revealed that a Venezuelan IT expert of Smartmatic, the Comelec supplier of the vote counting machines or VCM, has violated the protocol and the country’s laws by tampering with the “hash codes” that protected the integrity of the files containing the results. “The whole system has been compromised. The integrity of the results is now under question. While everybody was busy doing the counting, the Venezuelan IT expert from Smartmatic inserted a new script or a new computer program into the system around 7:30 p.m.of Monday, May 9, 2016,” the IT expert told The Standard. The IT expert said there was no Comelec official present when the tampering of the system took place. When confronted, the source said the Venezuelan admitted that the order to introduce a new script came from Marlon Garcia, project director of Smartmatic. The source said the “confrontation” had been recorded on video and audio. “The Smartmatic IT expert’s job was only to ‘receive, decrypt and distribute’ the files. Since we are also IT experts and we have been doing this since the preparation for seven months already, we knew what the Venezuelan did was something irregular. He introduced a new script, a new computer program and commands that could alter everything and supercede the existing program,” he said. He explained that the breach was confirmed when the “hash code” that was inside the transparency server was different from the hash code brought in by the Smartmatic. “The hash code inside the transparency server should be the same as the one to be inserted. We saw they’re different so we started to be suspicious and confronted the guy,” the source said. The Venezuelan used as excuse that a new script had to be inserted because one of the candidate’s names that appeared on the screen was erroneous, the source said. “What an excuse? The guy was obviously pulling our leg. We are IT experts, we know a new program was not needed to make changes in the name. So if he could alter the name, then he could alter the results. He could alter the entire command,” the source said. The source said the Venezuelan ran out of excuses when they demanded that he identify who among the candidates had complained about his or her erroneous name but could not show any record of the complaint filed. The source said they immediately informed PPCRV’s Henrietta de Villa who appeared adamant in making public the breach. De Villa instructed the IT experts to discuss the problem with William Yu, PPCRV’s IT expert, he said. At 8 p.m. of May 10, the source said De Villa had a conference with the IT experts that included the source, and recounted to her everything that transpired and the violations that could have been committed by Smartmatic. At 2 p.m. of May 11, The Standard sought De Villa’s comment on the breach and she vehemently denied there was such an incident. She also ignored the request from the Marcos camp to stop the PPCRV count and maintained that the Comelec had not ordered the PPCRV to do so. De Villa insisted the PPCRV’s transparency server was “safe and secure” and that there was “no incident report” from PPCRV IT experts about any problem. “Of course De Villa is lying. She was made aware of such breach and she could not possibly deny it since there is a CCTV camera of the conference, where she was told about the incident,” the source said. The source said the video and audio that comprise the evidence would be made public very soon. The source said a deeper probe must be done to find out the extent of the breach. “The probe will allow us to do an analysis as to the extent of the breach. It will tell us how much votes had been shaved from one candidate and transferred to another. It will also reveal who benefited from the anomalous actions done by Smartmatic,” the source said. Marcos’ political campaign adviser Abakada Rep. Jonathan dela Cruz demanded answers from the Comelec about the breach. He said the Comelec would be made accountable for the serious breach. The IT expert said several provisions of Republic Acts 8436 and 9369 also known as the Automated Election Law had been violated by the Smartmatic and Comelec. These laws, he said, prohibit any act that could affect the electoral process or results." If, as alleged, votes for Marcos were shaved and added to Robredo's tally, this could spell bad news for Duterte who, as Methersgate commented elsewhere, might not sleep too soundly knowing that he is all that stands between Marcos and the Presidency "which would make mommy so very proud". But at the same time, Robredo's disqualification would reflect very badly on Aquino and the Liberals. Today, the same newspaper contains the follow-up story "Senate bets join ‘rigging’ protest" which includes this snippet: "Tolentino, who currently ranks 13th, objected to the canvassing of certificates of canvass from Davao del Sur and questioned the “huge” discrepancies in the tallies. Tolentino’s election returns from the PPCRV’s transparency server reflected 435,471 votes but the CoC tabulations transmitted to the Comelec recorded only 101,333 or a difference of 334,138 votes “shaved” from the Davao del Sur results. Tolentino’s lawyers also noted that the Davao del Sur provincial board of canvassers transmitted their CoCs four times. In Misamis, some 100,000 votes were found missing from former senator Juan Miguel Zubiri’s tally in the PPCRV count. Zubiri now ranks 6th in the senatorial race." It may be a month or two before the fat lady sings.
You would think that with all the resources of the Liberal Party, the Aquino-Cojuancos, Hacienda Luisita, the CIA, the Rothschilds, President Obama and the International Zionist Conspiracy (to name but a few!) at their disposal, the Liberal Party would have made a better job of it!
This story supports the accusation made by Miriam Defensor Santiago on Wednesday that the Aquino administration manipulated the election results to favour their candidate Robredo. Not only that but I note that not all the votes cast by OFWs have been accounted for, most notably the results for Bahrain have not (yet) been included. It is claimed that Duterte's popularity among OFW is greater in percentage terms than amongst resident voters, so much so that Roxas polled fewer than 10% of the votes in some countries. Why is Comelec dragging its heels and why has the number of reporting districts been 'stuck' on 95% since Wednesday?
Are you furiously trying to distance yourself from such a crass example of gross ineptitude, by any chance?!!
No, dear boy. Vote riggers in the Philippines* deal in units of a million or so, in my experience! 96.04% reported as of now, according to Rappler. And I don't think that there are 200,000 Marcos voters in Bahrain. But we may note that OFWs relying on Facebook for their news have voted for Duterte, whilst the citizens of Samar, with first hand experience of Yolanda, have voted for Roxas. *Such as Duterte's intended Cabinet member General Esperon ( see "Hello Garci"...)
On the other hand, the good citizens of Cebu gave two votes to Duterte for every one vote for Roxas and it suffered the double-whammy of earthquakes and Yolanda but received very little aid from the government. Roxas' self-serving generosity to Samarans ensured him the vote there but it was by no means a landslide as was Cebu for Duterte.
On a point of information, the vote counting procedure is not in the script; it's in the source code. Rather a lot of Filipino IT people are quietly laughing behind their hands...
https://twitter.com/commrguanzon/status/731049208044605442 Vice-President Robredo it will be. Thank God.
IT expert dares Comelec: Open central database to disprove count irregularity Published May 13, 2016 2:35pm By ELIZABETH MARCELO, GMA News Want to see the E16 local results for Information Technology (IT) expert Glenn Chong from the advocacy group Automated Elections System (AES) Watch on Friday called on the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to allow independent IT experts to examine its central database to disprove allegations of irregularity in the counting of votes for the May 9 elections. In a press conference at the campaign headquarters of vice presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. in Mandaluyong City, Chong dismissed the Comelec and Smartmatic’s claim that the introduction of a new script or computer command in the Comelec’s transparency server on the evening of Election Day did not have any effect on the counting of votes. “Anything under the sun can be done when you change the script of the [Comelec] server,” Chong said. Chong then presented a chart showing the steady decline in the lead of Marcos over his then closest rival Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo allegedly an hour after the new script was introduced into the Comelec server at around 8 p.m. on May 9. “Senator Marcos was having the lead. This time between 7:30 to 8 in the evening, this is the injecting of new script. After that, around 9 p.m. the rise of Senator Marcos konti lang ang inincrease,” Chong said. “Afterwards, four updates lang naubos na ang lead ni Senator. By 3:08 ng umaga, konti na lang ang lamang ni Senator Marcos… si Congresswoman Robredo, beginning 3:29 ng umaga hanggang 5:51pm ng May 10, nag-build up siya ng lead in a very slow pace and steady ride. Wala na ho ditong instance that Senator Marcos was able to claim back the lead. Statistics will not lie,” Chong added. In a press conference on Thursday, Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista admitted that the script of the transparency server was tweaked, but only to correct the “?” character into an “ñ” character in the names of some candidates. In a press conference on Friday, Comelec’s systems provider Smartmatic likewise assured that the change in the server’s script did not affect the tally of votes, particularly the in the vice presidential race. “Ang tanong ko sa Comelec, ano ang overriding necessity, ano ang pinakamabigat na dahilan why you would risk the integrity of the entire election system into doubt para lang palitan mo ang character? I cannot understand that reasoning,” Chong said. Chong said an audit of the Comelec’s Network Operating Center (NOC) or central database is the only way to prove that the counting of votes was not affected by the change in the script. Chong explained that it is in the NOC where all the changes and incident reports in the server were supposedly logged “Kami ay nanawagan sa Comelec na buksan yung system and platform para ma-audit ito ng independent experts. Hindi po sapat yung sinasabi ng Comelec na ipapakita nila sa atin yung original script at yung binagong script. Any IT expert will not accept that,” Chong said. Chong explained that that a change in script, which in turn causes a change in the server’s hash code, does not prove any irregularity in the counting of votes. “Changes in the hash code will not tell you cheating. It can only show that there were changes, so it’s just a tell tale sign. But there can be no proof [of cheating] until you examine the packet data of the NOC,” Chong said. Chong, however, clarified that he is not representing Marcos and was just presenting his data to the meida as an independent IT expert. He, however, admitted that the senator’s camp called him to seek his opinion on the matter. Robredo continued to lead by more than 200,000 votes over Marcos as of Friday afternoon based on the Comelec's partial, unofficial tally. — APG, GMA News - See more at: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story....Ha5unw8e.dpuf
It's the server-side script that is being called into question, not the code on the vote-counting machines ....
I am sure that Leni Robredo will do what is proper. Whether DoDirty can manage it is the open question.
Isn't referring to the Philippine President-Elect as "DoDirty" a bit like calling the American incumbent "Barry" ....
It sounds like someone is trying to talk technical about MD5 SHA1 file hashes, if a script was changed then the hash would change for that script file, if they have the hash for the before and after images of the file then they can verify that the current script on the sever matches the new hash, from that they can then read the script and see what the hell it actually does. Should take about 2 minutes to read it and find out what it actually does by the sounds of it, if on the other hand it is a vast mountain of code then yeah something might have been going on.
No. But you may consider our friendship over, from this moment, as you have just betrayed your true colours. I had thought better of you.
From the news story, it seems that each precinct sends voting data in batches to Comelec's server and to the election watchgog's server, each packet of which has a hash code. It appears that a new script was added to the Comelec server which unpacked each data packet, adjusted the voter numbers for Robredo and Marcos, re-hashed and re-packed the data packet. This meant that the same packets sent to Comelec and to the watchdog had different hash codes.
So the emoticon that concluded my post signalling that the message was somewhat tongue-in-cheek and not to be taken seriously didn't register with you? Oh dear. I don't set-out to upset anyone least of all those I consider to be friends. I am sorry that through your misinterpretation of my post you became somewhat upset.
Its all far too technical for me to understand what is or what is not possible... The question I have is what are the rules and what is the law?? Are they authorized to add or change anything at all during live voting. Now they are asking "did it cause this"?? Marcos`s lawyers seem to be saying they broke the law.
