MANILA — It is impossible to hack the midterm elections’ transmission system.

This was the assurance that Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Garcia gave after the poll body signed the P1.4 billion contract with the joint venture of iONE Resources, Inc. and Ardent Networks Inc. for the Secure Electronic Transmission Services (SETs).

READ: Comelec to award 2025 midterm elections transmission contract to Ione Resources

“Impossible pong ma-hack, sapagkat ang atin pong machine ay stand-alone machine; hindi po siya nakakabit sa kahit na ano. Kakabitan lang po siya ng kable kapag magta-transmit na ng results,” Garcia said in an interview.

(It is impossible to hack because our machines are stand-alone machines; they are not connected to anything. A cable will only be put once transmission starts.)

Since election returns will be distributed to various stakeholders such as watchers and citizens’ arms before the transmission, a countercheck on the transmitted results can be done.

According to Garcia, the joint venture accepted all of their terms, including the condition that Comelec will own servers and logs.

“Ang lahat po ng servers, ang lahat po ng data, ang lahat po ng logs pag-aari po ng Commission on Elections. Number two, ang magma-manage ng mismong mga telco exchange… Ang mag-ooperate ng mga equipment ang Comelec, ang aming mga tauhan. Sila (joint venture) nasa likod na lang sila… Ang Comelec pa rin ang magco-conduct ng transmission,” Garcia explained.

(All of the servers, all of the data, all of the logs will be owned by the Commission on Elections. Number two, Comelec will manage the telco exchange and will operate the equipment. The joint venture will only be in the background. Comelec will conduct the transmission.)

This way, Garcia said, Comelec will be able to easily provide logs to a party who will ask for these.

A new system that will be implemented in next year’s polls is the “send-to-all” wherein instead of having a transparency server, the automated counting machines will send the election results directly to the majority and minority party, citizens’ arms, and the media.

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) will also be able to mirror the results from the precincts.

READ: Comelec assures more transparency in 2025 midterm polls

READ: Comelec to use 'sent-to-all' transmission system for 2025 polls

“This is actually an enhancement. Yung transparency server kasi, ‘dun lahat nanggagaling ang data natin, ang results. Eh pano kung magkaroon ng problema sa transparency servers? Ibig sabihin pagdududahan ang result ng elections natin,” Garcia stated.

(This is actually an enhancement. All the results came from the transparency server. But what will happen if there is a problem with the transparency servers? The election results will be questioned.)

With results sent to more groups, more people will be able to verify the votes, according to Garcia.