By Perfecto T. Raymundo, Jr.
QUEZON CITY — A former executive of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on Tuesday (April 22) assured the integrity of the votes during the May 12 national and local elections with the submission of the Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) Report and the International Certification.
During the “Seguridad ng Boto sa Halalan 2025” Huntahan Media Forum hosted by Toto Ylagan at Aristocrat Restaurant in Quezon Memorial Circle, former DICT Undersecretary for Cyber Security Infrastructure Management Jeffrey Ian Dy said “Under Republic Act 9369, otherwise known as the ‘Automated Election System’, there should be a Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) Report 30 days before the elections, unless it is antedated by the Comelec.”
Dy was a member of the Comelec Advisory Committee (CA) under President Bongbong Marcos.
Miru, a Korean company, won in the public bidding for the May 2025 national and local elections.
The TEC report should contain the vulnerabilities or weaknesses of the Miru System.
The online verification system is the same as the Gcash.
Even GCash is not 100% when it comes to verification.
“We hope that the TEC will submit the report. The route access means that you have access to all,” Dy said.
The TEC should say that it would not anymore happen.
There was an issue on humidity in the hardware of the system.
A hacker can produce an electromagnetic force to stop the system.
An expert in cyber security, Dy said that the TEC is important that is chaired by the DepEd and the DICT.
Three to five days before the elections, there should be a final testing of the system.
The USB, which contains the election returns, will also be counted manually.
“As far as I know, 1 per province or a total of 81 technical hubs will be established by the Comelec,” Dy said.
This is the first time that the Comelec and Miru claim that they will conduct a simultaneous transmission, but Dy said, there’s no such thing as simultaneous transmission from the precinct level to the central server of the Comelec.
The USB (Universal Serial Box) device, which contains the election results, serves as the official storage of the election returns.
“When we tested it, it’s possible that the USB can be hacked,” Dy said.
“The holder of the USB should be accountable. The Technical Evaluation Report should be released as well as the International Certification,” he added.
“Non sequitur, mali yun. Conjectures are those statements that anything that is connected on the internet can be hacked,” Dy said.
The creation of the CAC is mandated by law, specifically Section 6 or 7 of RA 9369.
Dy reminded everybody that it is illegal to use the Emergency Alert System during the elections.
During his time, the DICT has blocked cyber sex dens.
The PNP-ACG has arrested thousands of suspects involved in cyber crime.
“I still believe in the integrity of the Automated Elections, but it’s hard to have the security of the votes unless the TEC Report is released as well as the International Certification is done,” Dy said.
“The election system is not 100% tamper-proof. There is no such thing as 100% tamper-proof. It’s not even 99%,”he added.
Dy held 90% of the operations at the DICT and he believes that his appointment has not expired as he holds a plantilla position.
He stressed that he serves at the pleasure of the President.
He was one of the original appointees of President Bongbong Marcos. ###
