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Message from the Chairman

Message from the Chairman

Benefits from the country’s first nationwide automated elections

 

          The first nationwide automated elections have turned a new page in our country’s history. On May 10, 2010, some 48 million voters trooped to the 76,347 clustered precincts throughout the country to cast their ballots. By 9:15 P.M. of the same day, just a little after two hours after the official closing of the election precincts, the Commission on Elections, led by its chairman, held a press conference to announce partial but official electronically transmitted results of the elections at the national level.

           This has never happened before.

          On May 15, 2010, or merely four days after the elections, the COMELEC proclaimed nine senators, and the following Tuesday, on May 18, 2010, the remaining three. On May 31, 2010, 35 nominees from party-list groups have also been proclaimed by the COMELEC.

          On June 9, 2010, or 29 days after the elections, the president-elect and vice-president-elect were proclaimed jointly by the Philippine Senate and the House of Representatives acting as the National Board of Canvassers. 

          Philippine elections will never be the same again.

          The automated election system implemented during the May 10 elections is in no way perfect. Certainly there are many areas for improvement. But many agree that the automation of the elections have brought significant benefits that include faster and more accurate counting and transmission of votes and reduced chances of errors and possible fraud due to human intervention in manual systems. But, more importantly, our citizenry, and perhaps many of the members of Congress, have awakened to the benefits of automation, and the use of information and communications technology. The May 10 elections have certainly proven that elections in the Philippines could be made faster, hence cleaner and more credible through ICT.

           A new and encouraging interest in automation and in ICT has emerged. That is what is important.  The challenge now is how to leverage this interest into tangible results for the wider and strategic use of ICT for more efficient and effective governance.

The CIOF Foundation, Inc.

A non-stock and  non-profit organization duly registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, organized by and composed of former and incumbent Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and heads of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and Management Information Systems (MIS) offices or units of the different government departments and agencies, as well as local government units (LGUs) for the advancement and wider and strategic application of ICT for more efficient and effective public governance.

Our Objectives

1   To promote the strategic and wider use and application of information and communications technology (ICT) in the Philippine government for more efficient, effective, and transparent public governance;
2   To develop greater government-private sector partnership in promoting the use of ICT to enhance the delivery of services to the public;
3   To serve as an advocacy and consensus-building group to address key ICT policy issues and concerns;
4   To provide the venue for greater knowledge and information exchange, as well as resource and experience sharing within and among government agencies and instrumentalities.