OP ED OPINION-COLUMN | Rio debunks Comelec chief’s claim that private IP address was legal
Chairman George Garcia admits that Comelec used 20,300 modems with only one private IP address for the 2022 election count.
That admission confirms illegal rigging of results, says former information-communications technology secretary Eliseo Rio.
Memento Maxima Digital MarketingVote counting machines in 106,174 clustered precincts were supposed to transmit via PLDT/Smart, Globe or Dito. Those telcos would’ve used public Internet Protocol addresses, Rio says. And those public IP addresses should reflect in transmission logs.
But we’ve detected one private IP address 192.168.0.2, Rio says. It was used in 98.8 percent of Metro Manila VCMs, 95.5 percent in Cavite and 81 percent in Batangas, his computer forensics examiners found.
Comelec’s Transparency Server received bulk of results from Metro Manila, Cavite and Batangas within the first hour from close of balloting at 7 p.m. of May 9, 2022. Those came from 192.168.0.2. Same with first hour results from other provinces and cities.
Comelec brags that 39,000 VCM results, or 36.8 percent, were received that first hour, highlighting the VCMs’ speed.
But that’s impossible, Rio reminds, because precincts were supposed to stay open until all voters were accommodated, even past 7 p.m. After which, teacher-inspectors had to complete nine time-consuming tasks, like printing eight copies of election returns, which took about 30 minutes. Only then did they transmit.
At 7:35 of election night, Commissioner Marlon Casquejo told reporters that only 22,963 precincts nationwide, or 22 percent, had officially reported end of voting. Yet 42 minutes later, 8:17, 47 percent of all precincts not only had closed but also transmitted results.
Those mysterious 20 million-plus votes for president and VP shocked and awed voters into accepting the results, Rio says. Bongbong Marcos and Sara Duterte’s campaigners began celebrating, according to reports then.
Garcia said Wednesday, July 26, that Comelec rushed purchase of 20,300 modems for 10,100 newly leased VCMs and 5,000 defective ones from previously procured 97,000 VCMs.
“There’s nothing illegal” with the modems having only one IP address, which he did not identify. “The [2008 Automated Election Systems] law doesn’t specify that modems must have only one or different IP addresses.”
Rio rebuts: “There may be nothing illegal about it from a lawyer’s perspective. But it defies a technical principle in IP networking that in a single private network, there can only be one IP address for each device.
“It simply is not possible to have 20,300 modems with the same IP address in a private network. It’s like saying it’s not illegal to travel faster than the speed of light in space.
“That Comelec now admits that thousands of VCMs used just one IP address is proof enough that the 2022 election was rigged.”
Rio recounts Comelec’s March 22, 2022 AES end-to-end demo. Political party officers, info-technologists and poll watchdogs attended. He says:
“Use of a single IP address for thousands of VCMs is illegal because it’s not in the end-to-end transmission path shown by Comelec to stakeholders. In fact it was kept secret until exposed in the raw files uploaded in Comelec’s website last March 23, 2023.
“That illegal use of a secret single IP address points to a grand conspiracy where manipulation of election results [was] done even with so-called accurate checks from PPCRV and Namfrel.
“It’s like a clever magic trick where spectators are asked to look closely and be convinced that an impossibility was done before their eyes. But spectators don’t see the secret gadgets used in the trick.
“In the 2022 elections, no one knew, not PPCRV nor Namfrel nor Lente nor telcos nor media, about that single IP address.
“That secret single IP address 192.168.0.2 came from a private network. And that private network, confirmed by Chairman Garcia himself, was created by [Comelec’s AES contractor] Smartmatic for P1.053 billion.”
Comelec didn’t use proper transmission equipment during that end-to-end demo. As media participant, CNN-Philippines reported:
“Election returns were printed and vote transmission was swift using local area network cables. This is different from voting day transmission, which uses portable routers and SIM cards to send data to boards of canvassers.”
LAN wires are used to connect short distances, like home or office rooms, not an archipelago of 7,641 islands.
Rio continues: “Chairman Garcia last Oct. 18, 2022, committed to the public in a forum that he’ll compel telcos to show their transmission logs ‘within a few days.’
“That never happened up to now because telcos’ logs will show that almost no VCM transmissions passed through their networks between 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.
“But at 8:02 p.m. Comelec’s transparency server already counted an unbelievable 20 million-plus votes.
“Where did those 20 million-plus votes come from? From an illegal device with IP address 192.168.0.2 which, like a clever magic trick, remained hidden in the 2022 elections but was exposed only a year after.
“Whoever manipulated the VCM transmissions knew the election results before counting began.”
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