By Minka Klaudia Tiangco

The National Citizen’s Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) declined its accreditation as citizen’s arm of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the national and local elections, citing the poll body’s denial of its request for full access to information and data.

“Without open access to information and data, Petitioner is unable to participate in the Random Manual Audit (RMA) because the inaccessibility diminishes the verifiability of data separately provided during the RMA,” the Namfrel manifestation, dated April 30, 2019, read.

Some of the data and information that the Namfrel is asking for include the election day and precinct computerized voters’ list, project of precincts and related precinct statistics, any of the 28th to the 30th copy of the municipality, city, district, provincial, or national certificate of canvass (COC), any of the 27th to the 30th copy of the precinct election return (ER), and the municipality or city statement of votes.

The Namfrel had also asked for access to the transmitted ER from the main server, audit logs, DNS server logs, single line transmission diagram, data structure of transmitted ER and COC at least two weeks before election day, the voter verifiable paper audit trail on RMA selected precincts, vote counting machine (VCM) and consolidation and canvassing system logs, transmission logs including those that are generated from the “meet-me-room,” configuration files including Internet protocol addresses, candidates list in all positions nationwide, statement of contribution and expenses, and local absentee voting and overseas voters data.

Namfrel Treasurer Lito Averia said in a press conference on Friday that if they had been granted access to open data, the poll watchdog could have prepared data visualization for presentation and appreciation and answers to allegations raised against the commission and the electoral system.

They could have also looked for red flag incidents so the Comelec can plan and prevent irregularities and find points of improvement from the system, Averia added.

But Namfrel Chairman Gus Lagman said they will continue to do their election duties and “work with whatever they can get” to find other sources for the data they are asking for.

“It would be more difficult because we would have to look for others who have this kind of data, maybe they could share with us. Or we can partner with another group. The more doing this together, the better,” he said in Filipino.

“We can’t understand why we are not being given access to the election data because our intention is to be able to help Comelec to make their work more credible to the public,” he added. “That should be welcomed to government agencies to improve future elections.”

Comelec Spokesman James Jimenez said the poll body will be reviewing the terms of withdrawal of the Namfrel, which is one of their lead partner organizations for the midterm polls.

Jimenez also acknowledged the work that the Namfrel has done.

“Obviously, it is not an easy matter for the Comelec to be in this position of a partner pulling out. We will do everythung we can to address the situation,” he said in an interview. “Both sides would have to reach out to each other. We will see what happens.”