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King Prajadhipok’s Institute 31

The Election Code prohibits the use of public funds or
government-owned equipment and facilities for an election campaign

or any partisan activity. The release or use of public funds for public
works projects 45 days in advance of an election is also prohibited in
an effort to prevent the use of state resources to support a particular

candidate or party.

The Automation Process

On June 7, 1995, Republic Act No. 8046 was enacted and
authorized the COMELEC to conduct a nationwide demonstration of an

automated election system and to pilot test the system in the Autonomous
Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). The first ever automated elections

in the Philippines was held in the ARMM on September 9, 1996.

Following the perceived success of the ARMM automated
elections, Congress subsequently enacted Republic Act No. 8436 on

December 22, 1997, authorizing the COMELEC to automate the 1998
national and local elections and succeeding elections. Because of the
limited time to prepare for a nationwide automated election, however,

automation was limited again to the ARMM in 1998, and the failure by
the automated counting machines to read the ballots correctly in many

municipalities in Sulu province resulted in the manual counting of the
ballots.

In 2001, Congress failed to appropriate the necessary budget
for the implementation of an automated election system (AES). In 2004,
despite the appropriation of funds for automation, the COMELEC was

not able to carry out an AES because of a Supreme Court ruling that
declared as null-and-void the contract between the COMELEC and Mega