Comelec must explain delays and duplicate data, says Kontra Daya

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May 14, 2025 | 1:19pm

MANILA, Philippines — An election watchdog has called out the Commission on Elections (Comelec) over alleged duplication of voter data and delays in transmission to transparency servers.

Following an apparent duplication of data in one of the transparency servers showing unofficial election tallies, Comelec Chair George Garcia attributed the incident to data being transmitted in repeated trenches. He explained that the figures displayed on the server still needed to be cleaned by the appropriate program.

Kontra Daya convener Danilo Arao told Philstar.com that the explanation was misleading. 

Garcia initially explained that data from the precincts are transmitted to the Comelec and to the transparency servers accessed by external watchdogs and media. While Comelec receives the data in a linear sequence, the other servers receive it in batches, with increasing numbers.

Citing typical transmission protocols, Arao said that unless it explicitly states that data gets sent twice, it should just be once. 

“It really doesn’t make sense that your data gets duplicated, so that’s problematic,” Arao said in a mix of Filipino and English.   

If the automated counting machine (ACM) has a “send to all” function, then all servers should be receiving the data at roughly the same time.

The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) reported a case of duplicate data, prompting them to halt their unofficial count early Tuesday morning to clean the numbers.

This was followed by Garcia’s explanation about the staggered arrival of data to the transparency servers/

Arao argued that even with differences in the technology used, the delay should not have lasted for hours.

“If you're talking about relatively almost the same level of technology, it wouldn't take hours, especially if it is a transmission, the worst would be a 10 minute delay,” Arao said. 

However, Arao admitted that it was a nuanced process. Garcia should have left the explaining to a tech expert, he said. 

“He doesn't do a good job explaining and his remarks tend to highlight the lack of transparency, which is a fundamental issue in the election,” Arao said.