Two lawmakers from the Makabayan bloc filed House Resolution 2291 on Monday, May 26, urging the House of Representatives' Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms to investigate the alleged anomalous Automated Election System and other election-related anomalies during the 2025 National and Local Midterm Elections.
“These were based on reports of independent electoral watchdogs and advocates like Kontra-Daya, VoteReportPH, NAMFREL, and the Computer Professionals Union, which flagged as many as 1,593 election violations during the recently conducted elections,” the Kabataan Partylist’s social media post indicated.
The resolution cited the Omnibus Election Code of the Philippines, pointing out the principal qualities of elections in the country as clean, free, orderly, and honest. According to the document, the midterm elections were plagued with various issues like: major technical anomalies, massive voter disenfranchisement, and institutional complicity.
The resolution pointed out that Miru Systems, the main supplier for the 2025 elections, had been flagged in previous international controversies. Moreover, it was awarded a significant contract, despite the concerns raised by civil society and its initial disqualification.
It also highlighted the Online Voting and Counting System (OVCS) used for overseas voting, stating it lacked a Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). If proven to be true, this violates Section 6(e) of the Republic Act 9369 and disenfranchises voters who could not verify their votes.
“A discrepancy existed between the software version certified by Pro V&V, Inc. (v3.4.0) and the version installed in the ACMS on election day (v3.5.0), raising questions about the integrity of the source code and potential tampering, for which the Comission on Elections (COMELEC) provided inconsistent and unsatisfactory explanations,” it indicated.
The partylist believes that an investigation must be pursued and that all individuals or agencies proven to be complicit should be held accountable for “disenfranchising and invalidating the votes and democratic aspirations of millions of Filipino voters.”
Moreover, RH Milky Rigonan reported that ACT Teachers Partylist Rep. France Castro and Kabataan Partylist Rep. Raoul Manuel stated that there were 1,593 election violations this year. The data was based on the findings from the election watchdogs.
This included the alleged red-tagging, vote buying and selling, disinformation, and the abuse of government resources and ayudas.
