Comelec deposits last Halalan 2022 source code in BSP vault

MANILA — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Monday deposited in escrow the source code of the final trusted build of the transmission router for election results of Halalan 2022.

• Halalan 2022 source codes brought to Comelec

Comelec chairman Saidamen Pangarungan led the poll body's officials in transporting the source code from the Comelec headquarters in Manila to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in Pasay City.

Comelec Chair Pangarungan watches as the Source Code of the Final Trusted Build of the transmission router is transported from Comelec to BSP pic.twitter.com/Zqr1NAirlC

— RG Cruz, ABS-CBN News (@RG_Cruz12479) May 2, 2022

Commissioner Marlon Casquejo said this will be the last of the source codes to be deposited.

"I think this is the last, hopefully the last that we will deposit in escrow in Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas... With regards to this transmission router, during our pre-LAT we discovered some, not really error, but some modification as to the transmission of results. That is why there is a need (for the) trusted build again because it's a source code-related modification," Casquejo explained.

Franz de Leon of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Advanced Science and Technology Institute explained that the transmission router's job is to receive election packages and deliver these to their destinations.

De Leon said they had to modify the previous trusted build where the election package remains on queue even if the destination is unavailable.

However, in this new scheme, there is a separate queue for undelivered packages.

"The transmission router is an application, a software that runs the transmission router server so its main job is to receive the election packages, let's say from the VCMS and the CCS, to deliver them to the intended destinations," De Leon said.

The source code is secured in a vault with several locks and combination codes.

Only those authorized by the Comelec will have access to the source code.

The Comelec already deposited source codes of other components of the automated election system with the BSP.

"The safety and security of these source codes is vital to the credibility of the elections on May 9. As such, we are grateful to the BSP for holding these source codes in escrow until election day. We trust that the BSP’s strict security procedures and facilities will protect the integrity of the election by safekeeping these source codes," Pangarungan said.