THE Automated Election System (AES) that will be used in next week's national and local elections is now fully compliant with the law, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said.

Comelec spokesman John Rex Laudiangco said on Monday that the Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) has issued the last and final certification needed for the full implementation of the Full Automation System with Transparency Audit/Count (FASTrC), Secure Electronic Transmission Services (SETS), and the Online Voting and Counting Systems (OVCS).

The certification guarantees that the AES "can operate properly, securely, and accurately."

The TEC was created under Section 10 of Republic Act (RA) 8346, as amended by RA 9369, the law authorizing the Comelec to use an automated election system for the May 11, 1998 and subsequent elections.

Citing as basis the recommendation of Pro V&V, the international certification entity engaged by the Comelec upon recommendation of the Comelec Advisory Council following the Government Procurement Reform Act, the TEC conducted its inspection, review, and evaluation of the documented results and issued the certification in compliance with the requirement of the Automated Election System Act.

"This is all about transparency. We wanted to know how our [automated counting] machines will work, our [automated election] system will work, including the consolidation election system, transmission and internet voting, on election day," Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia said.

Garcia said that aside from the international testing, the Department of Science of Technology (DOST) also conducted a parallel test similar to the one done by the Pro V&V to determine if they would have the same findings.

The purpose of the DOST test, he added, is to determine if the agency can do what the foreign reviewing entity is doing.

"If we see that the DOST can do what the entity abroad is doing, why should we rely on an international certification entity? We should amend the law and later allow the DOST to do it. This is part of transparency," Garcia said.