Press Release
February 17, 2007

COMELEC scares away BPO investments
by not implementing Automated Election law

"If only the Comelec would stop looking at its collective navels, it would see that there are dozens and dozens of companies which supply automated polling systems in America , Europe , Asia , and even here in the Philippines . Hindi lang Mega-Pacific ang andiyan para mag-supply ng automated election machines, we have Hart Intercivic, Smartmatic, Botong Pinoy, and dozens if not hundreds of other companies. A number of which could have been acquired and set up by now if only the Commission on Elections had acted with dispatch, instead of finding illogical reasons not to implement the amended Automated Election law," said Senator Dick Gordon, in an interview at the E-Services exhibit which showcased foreign and homegrown business process outsourcing technologies.

The exhibit was organized by the CITEM and the Department of Trade and Industry at the EDSA Shangri-la Hotel in Mandaluyong City .

"We are the first Democracy in Asia and among the last ones to automate its elections if ever. The automated elections law was enacted ten years ago R.A. 9369 is simply an amendment - but in ten years nothing has been done. Even now that we've made the law more flexible and technology neutral, still the Comelec says it cannot be done. If it cannot serve its mandate, it should be held accountable," said Gordon.

Various technologies for automated polling have been up and running for over fifty years. He observed that the software, machines, and security systems used in poll automation are not so sophisticated that it requires a decade to study and implement.

"How can we convince the world that the Philippines has a good investment climate for business process outsourcing when we cannot even implement something as simple as an automated elections system? How can we believe that we have high quality IT professionals, when we keep hearing the Comelec saying that our people cannot learn how to use voting machines that are explicitly designed so that even illiterates, the deaf, and the blind can use it. The Comelec, apart from disenfranchising millions of Filipinos by its refusal to automate the elections, is also killing our country's chances of attracting more foreign investments into the Philippine IT industry," said Gordon.

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