Guanzon vouches for Smartmatic’s reliability

Former Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Rowena Guanzon maintained that the automated election system (AES) of Smartmatic’s machines are accurate and reliable. 

“The AES and the Smartmatic machines have an accuracy rate of 99.7%. It’s very reliable and so hard to tamper with particularly the transmission of election results,” Guanzon said. 

While these machines have been used by Comelec over the last seven years, Guanzon said the problem is the possibility of massive vote-buying. 

Guanzon added that the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), as well as the National Citizens (Namfrel) can attest to the machine’s reliability. 

Guanzon said that in her seven years as a poll commissioner she could vouch for the concerned personnel handling the machines. 

“You could not bribe them to tamper or add more ballots, I knew them well over my stint with the Comelec,” said Guanzon. 

Guanzon alerted the public against possible vote-buying, which she hinted may be prevalent before and during the May 9 polls. 

“What we cannot trust is vote-buying. This vote-buying of politicians is the one that kills our democracy,” she said, adding that the amount could be at least P3,000 per head. 

She assailed Marcos’ statement alerting his supporters to be on guard, particularly on Election Day as he feared a repeat of his losing to Robredo for the vice presidential race in 2016.