5,000 units of signal jammers to disrupt 2010 elections?

**chua_riwap** · February 2nd, 2010 12:43 PM

Ayan na mga mandaraya...........

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/02...lot-foil-polls

Comelec says report is still unverified

MANILA, Philippines - A Commission on Elections (Comelec) official said on Tuesday that reports of possible disruption of the May 10 poll results through jamming of telecommunication signals may just be part of a bigger plan to foil the May 10 automated elections.

"As a matter of prudence, we should accept the possibility that [a possible effort to delay the transmission of votes] is just a tip of the
iceberg," Comelec spokesman James Jimenez told radio dzMM.

Jimenez was reacting to a suggested scenario of radio dzMM anchors Ted Failon and Pinky Webb that attempting to delay the transmission of counted votes by the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines through mobile network signals may be part of a bigger play to manipulate the results of the May 10 elections.

The Comelec spokesman said the possibility cannot be discounted, and the poll body is taking the matter very seriously.

However, he added that reports of people planning to use signal jammers may also be planning to just "undermine the confidence of the [automated elections] system."

"Right now, we are looking at the more obvious [reason]: to undermine the confidence of the system and to create confusion," he said, clarifying that what the signal jammers can do is only to delay the transmission of the results.

Still no confirmation

Jimenez, meanwhile, clarified that the Comelec has yet to confirm the veracity of reports that 5,000 units of signal jammers have been smuggled into the country.

"Even now, we have not verified that report," he said.

He added that the information was not supposed to leak to the media while they were still trying to confirm the reports. "We are still trying to verify if there was really a shipment and who is the consignee."

Jimenez said Monday that the Comelec is already working on counter-measures to prevent the signal jammers from disrupting the transmission of the votes to the main servers of the automated system.

Hard to identify jammers

Edgardo Cabarrios, chief of the National Telecommunications Commission's (NTC) common carriers authorization department, told ABS-CBN's Umagang Kay Ganda that they can trace a signal jammer if it is in use.

Cabarrios, however, said that it would be very hard to identify the person holding or using a signal jammer because of its size.

"It can be traced because it emits a signal, but it would be very hard to identify the person using it because it's too small," the NTC official said, adding that a signal jammer can even be smaller than the average-size of a cellular phone.

Cabarrios said the NTC has not identified which stores are illegally selling signal jammers locally. He added that not a single jammer has been arrested.

He said that with the reports by ABS-CBN News about the signal jammers, the NTC's enforcement unit is now planning to conduct inspections in stores that could be illegally distributing signal jammers.

Cabarrios said that based on a law created in 1931, an individual who will be caught using, selling and smuggling signal jammers can be fined fees of P2,000 to P5,000 per unit and possible imprisonment.

Jammed PCOS testing?

Jimenez also told radio dzMM that the PCOS testing conducted in the Pateros-Taguig area last week could also have been disrupted by a signal jammer.

"I guess that it's a possibility," he said.

He added that it was unusual that the PCOS machines failed to transmit votes in Pateros and Taguig due to weak mobile network signals, but the people using cellular phones near the machines were able to use them.

"Last night, I was speaking to someone who knows these things. The jammer might have been a small device, close to the transmitter to jam it," he said.

Jimenez added that the Comelec is also looking into the possibility of controlling the number of people near the PCOS machines during transmission to avoid the possibility of jammers infiltrating the crowd inside polling precincts.

The Comelec spokesman said if jammers succeed in blocking GSM transmission, they can always use the Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN), where the transmission of votes are done via satellite.

He said that the Comelec has been advised that the BGAN signals are not affected by signal jammers.

**fourtheboys96** · February 2nd, 2010 04:33 PM

at least the COMELEC is not denying such problem may occur.

and they have contingencies in place.

and hopefully, only the transmission of results is affected and not the election results itself.

**coiter** · February 2nd, 2010 05:41 PM

kung 5,000 jammers ang inimport malamang hindi pang local elections lang ang target. if comelec would not be able to transmit the data from the precinct then they would have to travel some distance to get to a hardline. dun pwedeng magkaproblema. tsk. good luck to us all.