The right to know…what source code?

This is an AES Watch Statement

WHAT SOURCE CODE IS CHAIRMAN BRILLANTES REFERRING TO? The 2010 source code? the source code “in escrow with the Central Bank?” ARMM 2011 source code? 2013 source code?

COMELEC should release to the public the LICENSING AGREEMENT of Smartmatic with the real owner of the PCOS software, Dominion Voting Systems (DVS) to prove that the source code it is going to release for review is LEGAL and for the May 2013 use. The termination of the License by DVS is now the subject of a legal suit with Smartmatic filed in Delaware, USA last September 2012.

APPARENTLY, THE CHAIRMAN IS BROKERING FOR SMARTMATIC WHICH HAS SEVERED TIES WITH THE SOFTWARE OWNER, DVS. What are or what have been the terms and conditions of the chairman’s negotiations with Dominion? At what cost of the Filipino taxpayers/ money did the Chairman broker for the technology re-seller Smartmatic and what are the pay-offs?

REVIEW OF THE SOURCE CODE OF THE NATURE OF PHILIPPINE ELECTIONS TAKES FROM SIX MONTHS TO ONE YEAR OF REVIEW. It is now only 41 DAYS or one month and 10 days to go before Election Day. What kind and quality of review does the lawyer-dominated Commission expect to be done — a walk through or a pasada lang ng mata ng source code?

COMELEC should be consistent. ITS DEFINITION OF “FOREIGN FUNDED” IS “RECEIVING FOREIGN FUNDS.” PPCRV ALSO RECEIVES FOREIGN FUNDS (e.g. USAID, UK, etc) FOR ITS PROJECTS LIKE OTHER CITIZENS’ GROUPS and NGOs/CSOs DO. THE PROBLEM IS: DOES PPCRV UNDERGO ACCOUNTING AND AUDITING OF ITS FUNDS ESPECIALLY THOSE RECEIVED AS DONATIONS AND GRANTS like other citizens’ groups, NGOs and CSOs do? Or is the Comelec stringent resolution on the source code review only applies to its critics and not to its favored citizen arm?

PPCRV does not have the technical capability to conduct a source code review that requires a high level of expertise and know how. Who are their “experts” and what is their track record at software programming and review?

If the Comelec is serious with it own rules, it should then require that the code reviewers pass the stringent requirements as defined by them through its TEC.