MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) allowed access to its transparency server, and the change in the programming script would not alter election results, according to Smartmatic Philippines.

Smartmatic issued the statement yesterday as the Comelec ordered a probe of the company amid concerns raised about possible manipulation of the election results.

Marlon Garcia, Smartmatic Philippines project manager, said the Comelec has the other half of the passwords to the server so the technology provider could not have possibly accessed the system without the poll body’s permission.

The transparency server is being used by the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), which is conducting the unofficial quick count. The count has drastically slowed down, fueling suspicions that the outcome is being manipulated.

“There was authority to access the system, yes, because we need to have both passwords,” Garcia told a press briefing at the Comelec’s national canvassing center at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC).

Garcia noted that Smartmatic could not operate any component of the platform without Comelec’s password, and vice versa.

He added Comelec personnel assigned at the Pope Pius XII Catholic Center in Manila where the PPCRV has its command center “keyed in” the poll body’s password, enabling Smartmatic to make the “cosmetic” change in the script.

“Since it was a minor change – we are changing the “Ñ” for the question mark (?), it does not require to go up to the chairman (of Comelec),” he said, referring to Chairman Andres Bautista.

“We are not changing any results. We are not changing the format of the files. We are not changing anything so no need to escalate to the top management of Comelec. Because it was a minor issue,” he added.

Garcia said that based on protocol, an issue only goes to the entire Comelec “when it has financial repercussion.”

“If it is operational or technical, the Project Management (Office) team of Comelec has the authority to decide on that one. That has been the standard practice throughout the deployment of this project since day 1,” he said.

While representatives of political parties were present when the change was made, they were informed after it was done.

Garcia admitted there “was a mistake definitely, because look at the repercussion of that minor change.”

He added while “there is no harm done” on the election results, “it draws more of a media issue rather than any impact on the results itself.”