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| Former military official Abe Purugganan, inserted right is the screen-capped photo of his Facebook post |
As the alleged electoral fraud heat continues, bloggers and netizens, are now more eager to know the truth behind the controversies surrounding Comelec and Smartmatic.
In a Facebook post of a former military officer Abraham “Abe” Purugganan
is a message to the Filipino people that what happened is no longer just a case
of election fraud but a case of ‘democracy hacking’, undermining the national interest.
Purugganan’s message seems to have rooted from a video titled “Philippine
Democracy Hacked” that has been circulating in social media recently.
After a quick research, the video was traced back in 2017, posted by a
website named Philippine Computer Society, and was also uploaded in youtube by username
ELECTORAL PROTEST PH.
The military retiree also warned the IT specialist who created the video to be careful, as the people behind the alleged election fraud might go after them.
The military retiree also warned the IT specialist who created the video to be careful, as the people behind the alleged election fraud might go after them.
Purugganan’s Facebook post reads:
PHILIPPINE DEMOCRACY HACKED
This is no longer just a case of
election fraud. Government ICT infrastructure has been breached and
compromised, and sensitive information has been stolen and exploited. National
security has been impaired and national interest has been undermined. People
responsible for these should all be arrested and tried for fraud, cybercrime,
and even treason if they have worked with foreign interest groups.
NBI and PNP should start raiding
locations of servers and take custody. They should not
wait for a verified report. the Senate hearing is enough reason for them to
start an investigation. They need a lot of forensic specialists to get to the
bottom of this. The intelligence community should assist. A manhunt for all the
hackers should start immediately.
Share this with our people so they will know.
Sa lahat ng nagpaggamit na mga IT specialists sa kalokohan na ito, mag-ingat na kayo baka iligpit kayo ng mga mastermind sa mga nandaya sa eleksiyon. Mag surrender na lang kayo at magpa-witness protection na lang.
Sa lahat ng nagpaggamit na mga IT specialists sa kalokohan na ito, mag-ingat na kayo baka iligpit kayo ng mga mastermind sa mga nandaya sa eleksiyon. Mag surrender na lang kayo at magpa-witness protection na lang.
Meanwhile, a transcription of the said video is also provided below as
well as the youtube link for reference.*
After polling precincts declared in May 9, 2016, winners from all
government posts, from Governors down to City Councilors were already known.
By the morning of May 10, Presidential candidate returns were already announced,
and some already conceded their race to their unofficial winner.
Drama begins to unfold and unbeknown to the Filipino people. It was over,
before it even started.
Philippine Democracy was…HACKED!
May 9, 2016 at approximately 6:00 PM, as people across the country are glued
to their TV screens, they noticed a 2-hour results blackout. At the time when
the transmission of the electoral results should have been peaking
This was confirmed by the political parties took up the PPCRV quick
count center. Electoral results resumed briefly by around 8:00 PM.
An hour later, another blackout occurred while the Filipino slept. Results
steadily poured in quietly
by the morning of May 10, 2016.
Supporters of VP Candidate Bongbong Marcos decried what it seemed to be
foul setting that happened that evening.
After a series of blackout, one million lead was obliterated. And a near
250,000 difference with him and Leni Robredo
The results deferred significantly from surveys conducted leading to the
race and exit polls. Some observers outside the Marcos camp would note that trend
twisted after these blackouts.*
The election results the Filipino people were seeing in TV, and hearing
in radio that fateful day actually came from a computer dubbed the Transparency
Server.
It stops on the mix of data in the PPCRV Headquarters along U.N. Avenue,
Manila. The transparency servers and computers were not subjected to any form,
of review or audit. This contravenes expressed in the virtue of RA9369,
otherwise known as the Automated Election Law.
No one really knows how the server works. Stays for only known 2 parties,
the COMELEC and Smartmatic.
Smartmatic is the only vendor of COMELEC that configures, supplies and
maintains all vital components of the AES (Automated Election Systems).
Away from the muscle and prying eyes of the usual election conundrum and
well hidden from the scrutiny of the public is the known literally data center
owned by IP Converge located in Upscale Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.
It has the Queue Servers and other Top Secret Servers that determine the
Fate of the nation for the next six years.
Like the transparency server, all computers located here have never
subjected to a credible audit. In fact, even the COMELEC Information Technology
Department would not know how to operate these computers on their own. They
were installed and operated exclusively by Smartmatic.*
The Queue Server acted as a Check Point and Gateway where all election
returns transmitted will be queued before they will be forwarded to their
legitimate destinations.
Its mere presence is a clear violation of the law. And their secrecy
puts more weight to allegations that they were used for undermining the
electorate's will.
May 8, 2016, the Top Secret Server is booming with an unexplained
activity. The servers were working overtime collating data transmitted for some
vote counting machines.
But May 8 is the day before the opening of the data transmitting
centers. Polling precincts are not soon to be open after the next 23 hours.
Oddly, these transmissions came only from a set of 9 IP Addresses. One
IP Address in particular have more access than the rest.
From the pattern of the access, it seems that queries and attempts only came
from either a small set of computers or they were using COMELEC assigned USB Data
Sticks to transmit from a handful of VCMs in their possession.
Either way, the access could not be done by anyone without the knowledge
to do so.
According to COMELEC and Smartmatic, the entire results transmission
service is on a private network. If what they say is true, and by their own
admissions, the hacking of the AES can only be done within their ranks.*
A Special COMELEC Resolution was issued a few weeks before May 9, to
make it easy for these hackers to manipulate the election results.
These were done in steps and both Smartmatic and COMELEC were complicit
in assuring Philippine Democracy would not prevail.
December 2015, COMELEC officials were ordered to upload the Election
Project of Precincts, Candidates List, and all other required election data to
the Election Management System (EMS).
They are unable to do it, and so the task is handed over to Smartmatic. The
EMS is the heart of the AES. Anyone has access to it has full control of the
election.
By January 2016, Smartmatic experts were flown to the Philippines to
configure the AES. At its juncture, Smartmatic had full control of all the data
and the computers required for the automated elections.
From Data preparation and uploading to Ballot Generations, VCM and CCS
Configurations, Passwords, and ballot layouts for each polling precinct.
But how did they get these configurations from the EMS in order to
create their own elections and make
these transmissions legitimate.
The answer lies in COMELEC's new creation, the Regional Hubs.
By virtue of COMELEC's Resolution 10114, issued a mere 6 days before the
election, seven (7) regional hubs were made, contingency VCMs and CCS will be
stationed in these regional hubs.*
It will be, they, who will be receiving the configuration files to a
Secured File Transfer Protocol of SFTP Server, located just a few steps away
from the EMS.
The regional hubs were authorized to configure contingency VCM and CCS
and swap them with the official VCM and CCS come election day.
Despite this power granted, no political parties, media nor poll
watchdogs were present to witness the activities inside the Regional Hubs. And since
the swapping happens when a VCM malfunctions then the swap becomes legitimate.
Cheating is seamless. There are traces of a dark history between the Smartmatic
and COMELEC.
One that is involves a tapestry of unsettling and unmotivated events.
And the country's automated election history, Smartmatic failed to get
the Technical Evaluation Committee
Certification within 90 days prior to the election. Yet, the issue was shrugged
off by COMELEC.
The International Certification Entity SLI, tasked the COMELEC to audit
the Smartmatic AES gave an explicit comment that the rest of infrastructures also
be audited and reviewed.
But these were placed as a footnote and were ignored by COMELEC
altogether and as a result, while the EMS, CCS, VCM underwent a public source
code review.
All other components including the Central Servers, the Transparency
Servers, Queue Servers, and the entire result transmission service were not
subjected to a source code review nor the Infrastructure Audit.
It is the hacker's job to infiltrate, plan a virus to cripple the system
and exposing their bare plans undetected.
Clearly, the Philippine Democracy was hacked.
Our choice taken away.
But now that we know, what will
we do? to take it back...
