Comelec to convince Gordon to withdraw petition on review on the source code

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Sixto Brillantes said they will encourage former Senator Richard Gordon to withdraw the petition he filed before the Supreme Court (SC) to compel the Comelec to allow political parties to review the PCOS source code.

With this, he said that they are coordinating with Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza on how to convince Gordon to withdraw his petition.

"What we will do is probably appear before the Supreme Court and convince the petitioner, Senator Gordon, to just discontinue his petition," Brillantes said.

He described the oral arguments set by the High Court on Gordon's petition as already being "moot and academic."

"My position is this matter is already moot and academic since the source code is already arriving anytime," he added.

On Tuesday, Brillantes announced that Smartmatic International and Dominion Voting Systems have already agreed to release the 2013 source code of the machines.

The poll body chief added that the review of the source code will be open to interested parties and groups, as provided by the law.

Last Friday, Gordon together with the United Nationalist Alliance senatorial candidate filed the mandamus petition before the SC.

The oral arguments have been set on Wednesday.

In his petition, the former lawmaker said that allowing political parties to examine and review the source code of the PCOS machine is very important in ensuring honest, clean, and credible elections.

Section 12 of the Poll Automation Law provides that the Comelec should make the source code "available and open to any interested political party or groups, which may conduct their own review".

The source code is defined as the human readable instructions that define what the computer equipment will do. (PNA)