(UPDATE) Sen. Imee Marcos on Thursday said that a "very serious breach" occurred on the part of Smartmatic which could compromise operations of the counting machine provider.
Marcos made the remark after the Senate Committee on Electoral Reforms and People's Participation held a closed-door session to discuss preparations of the Commission on Elections for the May 9 elections.
The Comelec earlier refuted a Manila Bulletin report claiming that its servers had been hacked, resulting in the downloading of sensitive information that could affect the 2022 elections.
"There indeed was a security breach in the Smartmatic operation. That appears to be clear," Marcos told reporters in an ambush interview after the hearing.
"We have to admit that a very serious breach occurred. It may not be technically hacking. However, we feel that it compromises the processes and operations of Smartmatic in very serious ways," she added.
According to Senate President Vicente Sotto III, who was also at the hearing, an employee of Smartmatic allegedly let a certain group of individuals copy information from the technology firm.
This information has been made public through the Facebook page of "XSOS", Marcos said.
"Sinasabi nila yung information daw doon, yung iba bulok na, 2016 pa, may mga personal information. Ganunpaman, kinakabahan ako dahil may mga procedure ang Smartmatic, ang kanilang mga ledger, may mga picture ng kanilang opisina, may mga contact person sa Comelec," she said.
"Kaya medyo kinakabahan tayo on the degree that the depth and breadth of the data that is being released, that is still publicly available as far as I know," she added.
Marcos said the Senate would provide the public further details on what they learned during the executive session as soon as possible as other agencies are investigating the matter.
"Suffice to say, the media was right. Something did happen despite the denials of all institutions concerned in the past two hearings," she added.
Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez maintained that the poll body is fully in charge of the elections and that the alleged breach would not affect the results of the 2022 elections.
"As far as the relationship of Smartmatic to the Comelec, I feel that is perfectly okay to say that from the very beginning that Comelec is fully in charge of the elections," Jimenez told reporters in a press briefing.
"We are confident that even in this particular case, walang naganap na hacking and therefore we feel like there will be no impact of that alleged hacking on the election results," he added.
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