Recently the Commission on Elections website has been hacked resulting in the disclosure of many personal records of voters.
Many could not understand how this could have happened with the Comelec and many are dead worried about the consequences of this hacking.
That the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) positively identified and arrested a 20-year-old fresh graduate as being responsible for the hacking had infuriated a lot of voters who plan to sue the Comelec for neglect in failing to protect the privacy of voters’ data.
I think we should hold the Comelec accountable for such mess. I think this shows that Comelec failed to fix any flaws in their website or data system, exposing it to hackers that are barely out of college.
I think it is about time for the Comelec to invite or seek the help of IT experts in operating the automated election especially in preventing massive fraud in this forthcoming election.
Another concern is that our watch body for the election doesn’t have IT experts to effectively watch the prevention of massive cheating of our election.
I am wishing that the Comelec does something affirmative to prevent the further hacking of their website.
And I also hope the government agencies would do something to protect the interests of the voters by securing the websites of the Comelec and other government agencies.
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Lately presidential sister Kris Aquino has been criticized for using the presidential chopper in campaign sorties including here in Cebu.
President Aquino defended his sister by saying that he invited Kris to go with him and he wanted to show her where her taxes are going since the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) identified her as among the biggest taxpayers.
Those criticizing Kris are saying that it is very clear in the law that no government properties can be used for campaigning, and Kris used the chopper to campaign for Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer Mar Roxas and his running mate, Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo.
I think we should be clear about this law and should implement it strictly because the spirit of the law should also be considered in order to prevent abuse of power by government officials.
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The severe drought being experienced in Cebu and other parts of the country should spur our national and local governments to work double time in ensuring a steady, reliable water supply for their constituents.
Already reports of massive crop losses have been made due to the water shortage, and the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) appears helpless in doing something about it.
Metro Cebu residents can do their part in conserving water. Let us refrain from cleaning our cars and houses and water plans from time to time. That way we can let others use water especially those from the upland areas where there is low to zero water pressure.