While only the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) can officially confirm or deny if such hacking indeed occurred, our in-house Comelec-accredited cyber-security team is currently conducting its own investigation given their limited accessibility, after I asked them to exert whatever effort to get initial information.

Finding out who was/were responsible is already material information just to establish the motive and who will benefit from the alleged hacking. Meantime, we have to await the response of the author/s who said they will show proof to substantiate their hacking allegations.

That said, the Comelec should clarify the veracity of the hacking incident and be forthright with its findings. More importantly, it should be open to letting experts and related stakeholders help strengthen the security system – including our cybersecurity experts and those of other aspirants. Only through transparency and accountability can we guarantee the integrity of the upcoming elections.

Our elections on May 9 could not have come at a more critical time. This is not just about the individual candidates, but about upholding our democracy which, if the hacking turns out to be true, is gravely being threatened.

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