International certification entity Pro V&V leads the audit of Comelec data centers for Halalan 2025. Screenshot from Comelec's Facebook Live

MANILA — The Commission on Elections and an international certification entity started Monday the audit of the data centers that will house the servers where the results of the May 2025 elections will be transmitted.

International certification entity Pro V&V led the audit of data centers housing servers intended for media, the dominant majority and minority political parties, and accredited citizens.

The purpose of the audit, Comelec said, is to check the readiness of the facility, access controls, and security.

Comelec chairman George Garcia was present during the audit, as well as representatives of poll watchdogs and the Comelec suppliers — Miru for the counting machines and iOne-Ardent joint venture for the transmission.

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Jack Cobb, president and director of the US-based firm Pro V&V, said the audit will ensure consistency of firmware and models of the equipment to be used for the polls while the threat analysis will be conducted soon.  

"As we found today one of the pieces of equipment that is in there has not been updated to the latest that the other two have. They need to update that so that it’s consistent throughout," Cobb said.

Garcia expressed confidence in the audit of the system, pointing out that the suppliers have been responsive.

COMELEC BEGINS PRINTING OF BALLOTS

The Comelec, meanwhile, has started the printing of ballots that will be used in the 2025 national and local elections and Bangsamoro parliamentary elections.

Garcia oversaw the kick-off of the printing process at the National Printing Office, accompanied by Comelec commissioners Rey Bulay and Nelson Celis and other poll body officials, National Printing Office director Revsee Escobedo, and Miru managing director Andrew Shim.

The Comelec targets to print 950,000 ballots a day at the National Printing Office and finish printing by April 14. This includes the verification process and reprints or adjustments if necessary.

Ballots printed on the first day included ballots for overseas voting in places where online voting is unavailable, local absentee voting, ballots for the BARMM, and ballots for the final testing and sealing.

Like before, all ballots will have QR codes containing information tracking system "so that duplicates will be detected" and that the ballots will have security markings and features. As before, Garcia said, no excess ballots will be printed.

Comelec said the printing may be finished as early as March 25 but time will be needed to allow any reprinting. Delay in the printing may affect deployment but Garcia said NPO has standby machines available as a contingency in case these would be needed.

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Garcia vowed transparency in the printing process, saying the printing will be shown on livestream on Comelec’s Facebook page and that media, political parties, and citizens arms will be allowed to observe the process with proper coordination. He said the disposal of any rejected prints of ballots will be open to observation by the stakeholders. 

Ballot faces, he said, will be available on the Comelec website.

As of Monday, Garcia said names of candidates who have been disqualified in cases that have become final and executory will not be included in the ballots. 

He said the poll body "will find a way" in case the Supreme Court later issues restraining orders involving disqualification cases of certain candidates.

COMELEC CHECKPOINT

Garcia said Comelec checkpoints will be set up starting Saturday night, January 11, or the eve of the start of the election period and the beginning of the implementation of the gun ban.

Garcia said checkpoints will help assess the peace and order situation of a locality. He reminded authorities manning checkpoints to ensure the constitutional rights of Filipinos.

"Hindi puwede magpabukas ng ganito, hindi puwede magpababa ng tao, hindi pwede magpa-open ng kung ano. They should be limited only to plain view. And we will definitely insist that the same procedures and guidelines will be observed by the authorities," Garcia said.

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