Amusing Comelec ‘presscon’ on signal jammers

We were amused when the Commission on Elections chair and the interior secretary held a press conference discussing the capability of some electronic gadgets to jam the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) transmittal of the results of the 2013 elections. Giving the public an idea of the various possibilities in which the elections could be sabotaged does not only raise doubts about the credibility of elections; it also gives unscrupulous “merchants” an idea about how they can possibly widen their market, especially at the local level where the failure to transmit the election results from a single precinct could open up the opportunity to tamper with the results (during the manual transmission of the election returns).

What was amusing about the whole thing was that after stirring fears about the jamming gadgets, Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes belittled their capability to sabotage the elections. Why conduct that press conference in the first place if the gadgets, which cost just a few thousand pesos, cannot affect the polls?

Even more amusing was that, according to Brillantes, the jammers would “not stop” the transmission but can only “delay it.” But of course the PCOS can only try to transmit three times. If I can delay the transmission thrice, then that means I can stop it?

—MAX PASCUAL, verbalkintturk@yahoo.com