Comelec eyes use of new technology for 2025 polls

MANILA – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is looking at the possibility of using new technology in the 2025 national elections.

Comelec chairperson George Garcia said Thursday they are planning to integrate the biometrics technology to the new election system they will be using for the 2025 polls.

“The Comelec is considering getting new technology to replace old machines. We are talking about the so-called integration of biometrics technology in the machines. We are complete with biometrics, signature, facial, fingerprint. If these are incorporated as part of the Terms of Reference, it will resolve the issue that a voter can vote from one province to another city,” the poll body chief said in a press briefing.

Garcia, however, said funding is the main concern in determining the type of technology they are going to utilize.

“We always have to factor the budget. If we want specific technology but it's too expensive, we can't afford it. Hopefully in 2025, the Comelec will be allowed to use new machines and technology based on the recommendation of the summit, strategic planning.”

The Comelec chairperson noted that they will no longer use the vote counting machines (VCMs).

“The Comelec is really determined to set aside 98,000 VCMs. We are 100 percent sure that we don't want that machine anymore,” he said. On the other hand, Garcia added that if they decide to use new machines, they will not buy them but only to lease them. Best approach is to lease the machines. Because when you buy, it's expensive and we don't have a warehouse yet. If it's a lease, it's always new,” he said. The VCMs were last utilized in the May 2022 polls. It was first used in the 2010 elections.

On the other hand, Vice President Sara Duterte urged the Comelec to consider doing away with the ballot shading or handwriting on ballots during elections.

"As you discuss improvements in the electoral process, maybe we can move to something better than shading the ballots or writing on the ballots," she said on the second day of the first-ever National Election Summit in Pasay City.

The three-day summit will end on Friday. (PNA)

“Taking a context-based and factual grassroots approach, we intend to reach out to, and equip, these communities with knowledge and skills and tools that will enable them to be discerning of the truth as they engage in various social media channels and platforms,” Maralit added.

Maralit said the two-fold path involves the active collaboration by PCO with the private sector, including the stakeholders of the broadcast industry, to establish effective mechanisms against fake news.

The PCO will also guide the public toward a place of strength where they have the ability to understand and identify false, incomplete or inaccurate information.

We will work to improve the citizenry’s ability to think critically and analyze information. The first step towards this end is identifying reliable and credible sources of information,” Maralit said, noting that the office wish to achieve this goal with both sensitivity, balance and respect for constitutional rights.”

Maralit said a thorough study will be conducted this month throughout the Philippines, which seeks to refine the target communities where media literacy is most needed; determine the social media platforms through which these communities are most susceptible to fake news; and identify the contents and topics on which these misinformation and disinformation focus.

The study also hopes to identify the profiles of fake news peddlers; understand the influences that open these communities to deceptions and understand the practices and habits of the target communities that create the opportunities for exposure to disinformation and misinformation.

“When we have gathered the results of this study, expectedly by the middle of this year, we will be implementing a nationwide media literacy campaign that will focus on the areas identified,” the PCO official said.

By the end of this year, Maralit said, the PCO will be closing the campaign with a Media Literacy Summit, where speakers from organizations such as Facebook, Google, and the Philippine Commission on Women, among others, will be invited “in the hope that they will share equal commitment to this cause."

Maralit also reported that pieces of legislation on media literacy have been introduced in both Houses of Congress.

The measures seek to institutionalize the effort of the Department of Education to include Media and Information Literacy (MIL) as a core subject in the current curriculum of basic and secondary education.

Maralit discussed the challenges in integrating MIL in the basic education curriculum, such as the misconception about the MIL course as an educational technologyrelated subject, the lack of training for MIL teachers, and the need to consider MIL as a core subject by tertiary education institutions.