Smartmatic has informed the Commission on Elections (Comelec) that the data that was said to be leaked by one of its employees has nothing to do with the upcoming May 2022 elections.

“They emphasized to us that the data leaked does not have anything to do with the elections in 2022. What was leaked were data concerning internal organization and activities. So they assured us that the security of the ballot, the configured SD cards were not compromised by that leakage,” Comelec Chairman Saidamen Pangarungan shared on Friday, April 1, during the agreement signing between the poll body and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).

The senior officials of Smartmatic paid Pangarungan a courtesy call in his office on Thursday, March 31. Smartmatic was earlier required to present their side on the alleged leak of important data by one of their employees. There, Pangarungan said that Smartmatic informed them that they have given the appropriate disciplinary action against that employee of theirs.

According to him, the said employee was dismissed.

The Comelec chair mentioned that their reply to Smartmatic as he was accompanied by Commissioners George Irwin Garcia and Rey Bulay was that they will wait for the official report from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) before making a decision regarding the breach.

“Makakaasa kayo (You can expect) that we will decide this matter as soon as possible,” he said.

Pangarungan said that Bulay assured them that he will follow up with the NBI to expedite the report.

In a statement by Smartmatic spokesman Christian Robert Lim, he confirmed the statement of Pangarungan as true and reiterated that only one former smartmatic employee is involved and has been doled out “with disciplinary action without prejudice to any criminal and civil action that will and may be filed by Smartmatic.”

“Disciplinary action imposed is commensurate to acts constituting serious misconduct, willful breach of the trust reposed by the employer and fraud,” he added.

Possible action against Smartmatic

“We have asked our law department to submit to us all possible actions that we will take on this breach,” Pangarungan said.

He added that it’s premature for them to disclose the possible actions while waiting for the NBI report and that they will let everyone know soon.

“I want to assure everyone, you read my lips, we will not allow anyone to undermine the people’s confidence in our electoral system. That is our pledge. That’s why I ordered for full transparency without compromising the security of the ballots and the SD cards,” he stated.

Pangarungan said that they told Smartmatic that the incident should not happen again. He stated that the unfortunate incident, although small, created a lot of ruckus. He reiterated that it should not be committed by their employee again.

Source:
courtesy of MANILA BULLETIN

by Dhel Nazario

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