MANILA - Smartmatic has fired the employee behind the alleged security breach flagged by Senate Committee on Electoral Reforms and People’s Participation Chair Imee Marcos.

“I think parang tinanggal na sa trabaho yung taong 'yun. That’s my understanding," Commission on Elections chief Saidamen Pangarungan said.

"We told Smartmatic na hindi dapat maulit ito. 'Wag na 'wag nang uulitin itong nangyari very unfortunate incident kasi napakaliit na bagay and it created a lot of problems. Dapat di na maulit ito.”

Pangarungan made the statement while he was speaking with journalists about his Thursday meeting with Smartmatic officials.

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“Since last week we required Smartmatic to present their side on the alleged leak of important data by one of their employees. Smartmatic informed us that they have meted the appropriate disciplinary action against that employee," he said.

The poll chief said Smartmatic officials stressed that the data leak had nothing to do with the May 2022 elections.

"What was leaked were data concerning the internal organization and activities. They assured us that the security of the ballot, the configured SD cards were not compromised by that leakage,” Pangarungan said.

The official, however, maintained that they are still waiting for the report of the National Bureau of Investigation on the incident, as this will be the basis of the their next course of action.

“We have asked our law department to submit to us all the possible actions we will take on this breach. It's premature for us to disclose it habang inaantay namin ang report ng NBI but soon malalaman niyo."

"Read my lips: we will not allow anyone to undermine the people’s confidence in our electoral system," he said.

Two weeks ago, Marcos, following an executive session, claimed that based on a Facebook post by a group called XSOX, a contractual worker of Smartmatic allowed a certain group to copy the content of his work laptop.

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But Smartmatic belied Marcos' claim, saying what their formerly employee did was "completely unrelated to the Philippine elections and doesn't deserve to be called hacking."

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Pangarungan has ordered a review of Comelec's contract with Smartmatic.

The Department of Information and Communications Technology last week said it was coordinating with authorities to look into the alleged security breach.

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