JOEY III: ARROYO ADMINISTRATION “INSENSITIVE TO THE NEEDS OF OUR YOUTH”

Senatorial candidate Joey De Venecia yesterday said that while he welcomes the promise of Commission on Higher Education (Ched) Chairman Emmanuel Angles to scrap the 2,000% increase in matriculation fees at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), “this will only temporarily ease the simmering anger of our less-privileged youth over the government’s neglect of public education.”

De Venecia, who is running under the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino, said, “it is unfortunate that our students had to resort to violently throwing out unusable classroom implements and storm and deface the Ched offices to underscore their frustration.”

Their anger, he said, is justified even if he did not necessarily agree with their means of expressing that anger.

“By his own admission, Ched Chairman Angeles confirmed how our lawmakers have repeatedly ignored the appeals of PUP and other state-owned colleges and universities to be given higher budgets to cope with the ever-increasing number of enrollees from low-income families,” de Venecia said.

This is rank insensitivity of the Arroyo regime to the needs of our youth, de Venecia added.

The opposition senatorial aspirant said, “government by its insensitivity is courting the return to left-wing student activism which boiled over during the time of President Ferdinand Marcos.”

Student activism flourished during the late ’60s to early ’70s until martial law was declared in 1972. Unknown numbers of student activists were part of the underground movement against the dictatorship. Filipino students were also key players in the Edsa 1 and 2 revolts.

“It is no wonder that because of its imperious attitude and involvement in questionable deals that the Arroyo regime is being tagged by militants as being worse than the Marcos dictatorship.”

De Venecia said, “it is disgustingly laughable that all Palace spokesmen have to say is the financial problems of state colleges and universities will have to be addressed by the next government.”

The financial problems of the education system were caused by the administration in the first place, the son and namesake of former Speaker Jose de Venecia added.

Posted in Alcantara |

JOEY DE VENECIA: POLL FAILURE, DIGITAL DAGDAG-BAWAS MAY RESULT FROM SOURCE CODE PROBLEMS

Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) candidate Joey de Venecia today said he was deeply concerned over the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) failure to be transparent in its assessment and testing procedures of the source codes to be used in the May 2010 automated elections.

De Venecia, an IT expert and businessman who set up the country’s first call center in 1997 and who successfully opposed the government’s P16.5-billion ZTE-NBN deal, said the Comelec should allow local experts to examine the source code to see if this was vulnerable to glitches or tampering by hackers out to thwart the automated polls.

“I am deeply concerned that the source code’s improper validation against glitches and tampering is yet another weak link in the chain that could lead to the failure of the automated poll count system,” said de Venecia.

The source code is the software giving the PCOS machines its operating instructions to accept and tabulate the ballots fed it and to transmit the results to the Comelec in Manila. The heart of the whole poll automation system, the source code should ideally have been properly cleared for operational glitches and proofed against tampering by outside parties.

De Venecia said the Comelec hired a US firm, SysTest Labs to conduct tests on the source code. However, he said the public was not made aware as to how SysTest Labs was chosen, its credentials, and its methodology and the results of its tests.

“From what I have gathered, the “tests” conducted by SysTest Labs were little more than a reading of the codes line by line. We also learned that there were some minor glitches, the nature of which has not been explained,” said de Venecia.

De Venecia said it was ironic that the Comelec had arranged for the source code to be physically secured at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), when there was yet no certainty that this would run without a hitch and with no vulnerabilities that could make it prey to hackers during the actual polls.

“At the very least, local IT experts should have been consulted by the Comelec and been involved during the crucial evaluation and testing phase –and even during the process in choosing SysTest Labs,” said de Venecia.

In a letter sent to Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal last March 9, de Venecia asked the Comelec to provide him a copy of the SysTest Labs test results so he could circulate these in the local IT community and to other interested parties.

“While I do not question the capability of SysTest Labs to conduct an objective review of the source codes, we candidates for national office would be more at ease if we were to have a copy of the tests for our own perusal.”

“For now, there are some questions which I feel need to be answered. Most important of these is why we were not given access to the codes so that we could conduct our own tests.”

“We remain in the dark over the methodology used as well as the conclusions reached after the tests were conducted. Most importantly, we would like to be reassured that the codes are as invulnerable to hacking as claimed by the supplier.”

Finally, we would like to know if the environment under which the tests were held were really controlled,” said de Venecia.

Posted in Alcantara |

“PROTECT PCOS MACHINES FROM MALICIOUS SOFTWARE DESIGNED FOR DIGITAL DAGDAG-BAWAS” – JOEY DE VENECIA; COMELEC URGED TO REVISIT PLANS TO DISTRIBUTE VOTING MACHINES TO ALL THEIR INTENDED PRECINCTS

Senatorial candidate Joey De Venecia today sought the “full revelation of arrangements to transport the precinct-dedicated automated vote count machines for the May 10 elections to ease public concerns over their safe and secure handling.”

“While the more than 80,000 precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines are now safely under guard, these will be under threat from contamination once their distribution commences.” The Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino senatorial stalwart warned.

“There are very real dangers that the PCOS machines can be waylaid and tampered with by individuals possessing the technical knowhow to insert malicious software intended to alter the results as ballots are inserted into them on election day.”

De Venecia said that “while the mainstream news media has ignored it, there have been on-line reports about a study by the Center for Information Technology Policy of Princeton University three years ago on the most widely used automated voting machine in the United States that showed the machine to be vulnerable to malicious software.”

The opposition senatorial bet said that “while the machine tested by Princeton University researchers was a direct recording (touch screen voting) machine (the Diebold AccuVote), its internal architecture is basically similar to the PCOS machines leased by COMELEC from Smartmatic.”

Quoting the results of the Princeton University study, De Venecia pointed out that malware introduced into the voting machine “can modify all of the records, audit logs, and counters kept by the voting machine, so that even careful forensic examination of these records will find nothing amiss and anyone who has physical access to a voting machine, or to a memory card that will later be inserted into a machine, can install said malicious software using a simple method that takes as little as one minute.”

The opposition senatorial aspirant said such vulnerability point to the clear and present danger of precinct level Digital Dagdag Bawas the likes of which will totally compromise the integrity of the elections.”

De Venecia said he was “among those whose earnest efforts at pushing for anti-corruption reforms and promoting information technology to bring in investments and create jobs whose winning bids for the Senate can easily be knocked out by automated election fraud.”

De Venecia has seen his popularity among voters steadily increasing with the latest senatorial survey by the independent polling firm StartPoll showing him solidly occupying the 9th place in the Senate race despite having virtually no TV ads.

“We urge the COMELEC to revisit the safeguards for both the technical integrity of the PCOS machines alongside the critical need of transporting these to all precincts securely and on time.”

Posted in Alcantara |

De Venecia lauds DBS projection on RP economy

Businessman Joey De Venecia III yesterday welcomed as “inspiring” the projection from theDevelopment Bank of Singapore (DBS) that the Philippine economy can expand by 4.5 percent this year, above the official forecast of 2.6 percent to 3.6 percent.

De Venecia said, “DBS is right on the money in citing the global economic recovery as a vital contributing factor.”

The Philippine business community is also in an upbeat mood with the impending change in administration, he added. It is generally conceded that an opposition candidate will win the presidency in the May elections.

De Venecia himself is an IT businessman and economist taking his first try at local politics by running for senator under the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP). He has consistently appeared in the winners’ circle of 12 in all surveys.

The son and namesake of former Speaker Jose de Venecia has seen his popularity among voters steadily increasing with the independent survey firm StratPOLLS showing him occupying ninth place in the senate race despite virtually no television ads.

De Venecia’s economic agenda includes turning the Philippines into an IT hub like Singapore, boosting agricultural and fisheries production, and taking advantage of the global economic recovery by providing greater incentives to exporters.

The latest report from the National Statistics Office shows that the country’s export earnings rose at their fastest pace in almost 15 years in January, with sales to major economic blocks that include Europe, the US, Eastern and Southeast Asia posting growth amid the global economic recovery.

The NSO report had detailed how exports surged by 42.5 percent to $3.578 billion from a year earlier, and by eight percent from the December level. This was the fastest growth since April 1995, when exports went up by 42.62 percent.

The PMP stalwart said, “beyond its tracking of the economic recovery, one aspect the DBS should also have noted is now Philippine businesses are very upbeat about the prospect of finally replacing the current regime of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo with a popularly elected administration comprising of reform minded lawmakers determined to fight corruption,” de Venecia said.

“Apart from the current political campaign spending acting to pump prime the economy, the entry of new policy makers with the right economic mindset of attracting foreign investment will greatly benefit our moves to ease poverty,” he said.

“We have every reason to be upbeat not only about sustained economic growth but also in making institutional reforms that level the economic playing field from 2010 onwards, according to de Venecia.

Posted in Alcantara |

Reclustering of precincts will add to growing poll problems — JDV III

The reclustering of voting precincts for the May polls at this late stage will only add, not lessen, the mounting problems faced by the Commission on Elections as well as the electorate, businessman Joey de Venecia III said yesterday.

Previously, there were 329,389 precincts throughout the country. For the May elections, this has been drastically reduced to 75,471 precincts.

“Imagine the millions of bank depositors using ATMs for the first time on the same day. Even with the most perfect system, the situation will still be chaotic,” the IT businessman said.
With the new configuration, there will be an average of 2,000 voters per precinct. Each voter in each precinct will be using the voting machines for the first time.

“If it takes each voter one minute to fill up the ballot — which will have more than 200 candidates — it would take 2,000 minutes for everyone to cast his or her vote. That’s more than 33 hours,” the ZTE-national broadband network whistleblower pointed out.
In the past and with manual voting, countless precincts had to extend the voting hours. This was when the typical precinct had between 200 to 300 voters.

The Comelec’s estimate of about 1,000 voters per precinct does not tally with the estimated number who are actually expected to cast their votes. The percentage of registered voters who actually cast their votes is usually higher during presidential elections than mid-term elections, de Venecia noted.

De Venecia added that the average voter would likely spend more than one minute to complete a ballot. This excludes the time spent lining up to vote. The voter would not only have to vote for president, vice president, 12 senators, but also for local officials, and party list representatives.

The voter would be faced with a ballot like nothing he has ever seen before, about two feet long.
“We are facing the most chaotic elections in Philippine history,” he said.

The son and namesake of former Speaker Jose de Venecia also voiced his concern over what he said was the late delivery of the poll machines. The Comelec announced last week that complete delivery of the 80,000-plus voting machines would not be completed until the middle of next month.

Since only one voting machine will be deployed per cluster, the Comelec said it will have a total of 6,739 surplus units which should be sufficient to serve as backups during the elections.

Comelec Chairman Jose A. R. Melo, said that based on the Project of Precincts (POPs) submitted by election officers as of July 20, 2009, the total number of clustered precincts stood at 85,316, but the number of voting machines under the supply contract was only 80,136 with 2,064 spares.

“There is a need to adjust the number of established precincts to be clustered/grouped in order not to exceed from the allocation of the Precinct Count Optical Scan machines,” the Comelec chief said.
De Venecia had also expressed fears of a failure of elections, either due to malfunctions or a failure of the contractor to deliver all the machines on time.

“I hope and pray that I’m wrong, but my gut feel as an IT businessman of two decades tells me that there will be serious problems facing the electorate come election day,” he said.

Posted in Alcantara |

Free cellphones for all doable

His claim that the country’s telcos can provide free cell phones to all their subscribers is based on fact, businessman Joey de Venecia III said yesterday.

“Millions of Filipinos who live and work abroad know that providing free cell phones is the practice of telcos in their host countries,” he said, “The Philippines is one of the few countries in the world where telcos do not provide complimentary cell phones.”

De Venecia said providing the freebie should also apply to pre-paid subscribers, who form the overwhelming bulk of cell phone users in the country. All the telcos have to do is include a lock in provision when consumers buy their pre-paid SIM cards with the complimentary phone.
Subscribers who do not adhere to the terms and conditions of the provision will have their cell phones locked. These phones cannot be sold because only the telcos can unlock them.

“The technology for this exists,” explained de Venecia, one of the country’s pioneering IT businessmen. As proof, he pointed to the new phones with built in GPS , or global positioning system.

Giving away free cell phones will boost the Philippine economy, he said, as every percentage increase in cellular penetration results in a corresponding increase in GDP, or gross domestic production (the sum total of a country’s income earned from producing goods and services, excluding remittances from overseas workers).

Joey de Venecia III admitted that the country’s big three telcos – Globe, Smart and Sun – would not be happy with his proposal. “But they report billions of pesos in net earnings annually. Providing free cell phones will not hurt their bottom line but even increase it as the telecom consumer pie gets bigger. They can source their free phones from China, which manufactures low-cost but high-quality cell phones and other electronic goods.

The ZTE-national broadband network whistleblower knows of what he speaks. In his past IT projects, de Venecia has had the opportunity to source equipment from China .

Good cell phones can be had for as low as $10, or less than P500 if sourced from China , he added.

The son and namesake of former Speaker Jose de Venecia said that the country’s biggest telco – PLDT – provides free phones to landline subscribers. This now includes their so-called wireless land lines, which are actually cell phones in a different guise.

De Venecia admitted that regulating pre-paid subscribers who receive free phones was a new idea that the telcos might not welcome since it would add to their work. He insisted, however, that the telcos “owe it to the Filipino consumer.”

The telcos should maximize their service, not just their profits, according to de Venecia.

He dismissed the argument that since texting is how most Filipinos use cell phones, the telcos would not earn as much if they gave away phones “to mere texters.”

There is no additional cost in providing the texting service to subscribers, said de Venecia.

“Have we forgotten that when cell phones were first introduced in the country, SMS or texting was provided free of charge?” he asked.
The telcos should give Filipino consumers a break, Joey de Venecia III ended.

Posted in Alcantara |

Mensahe mula kay Joey de Venecia III

Posted in Alcantara |