Intelligence officers of the Bureau of Customs swooped down on establishments in Metro Manila on Saturday to find the reported signal jammers, thinking they were out on sale in the markets, but later said the electronic devices were nowhere to be found.

A Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) officer who requested anonymity since he was not authorized to talk to the media said they could not find any of the 5,000 jamming devices purportedly smuggled to disrupt the holding of elections on May 10.

“The arrival of jamming machines is a clear case of misinformation or we can say a false report. We could have found at least one device if they were smuggled into the country but there was none,” he said in an interview.

A signal jammer is a device often used by law enforcement agencies to disrupt radio signals between cell sites and mobile phones.

The official said someone could have a hand in blowing up the issue on jammers to sabotage the poll automation rather than believe speculations that unscrupulous individuals were behind the illegal shipment of the machines.

“No evidence has ever been found as to the entry of these jammers but we are still validating the reports we got about this,” the intelligence officer added.

The day after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced the shipment of 5,000 jammers early this February, intelligence agents led by CIIS chief Dino Tuason were deployed in Metro Manila to find the electronic devices.

Tuason was ordered by Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales who assembled the team to also coordinate with Comelec and the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to verify the reports.

But after weeks of trying to trace their locations, the source said what they found were low-technology cellphone jammers being sold in Quiapo, Manila which are incapable of interfering with the transmission of voting results.

“These jammers admittedly are easily available but not to serve its purpose of being a serious threat to the country’s first ever automated elections,” he said, adding that “cellphone jammers are even placed inside churches to stop phone calls or text messages interrupting religious services.”