DUMAGUETE CITY – It would only take 30 information technology (IT) experts to manipulate the results of the country's first-ever automated elections in May 10, Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) senatorial bet Jose "Joey" De Venecia III warned Wednesday.

An IT expert himself, the young De Venecia said a handful of technology savvy hackers can rig 20 percent of all the votes to be cast in the upcoming polls, which could eventually lead to a failure of elections.

"A handful (of IT experts) can do it. Let's say if you want to manipulate 20 percent of the precincts, you can have 30 people to handle 16,000 precincts," De Venecia told reporters.

De Venecia, who testified against the government in the Senate hearing on the NBN-ZTE deal, added that it would take only one "computer guy" to hack the Commission on Elections (Comelec) servers used for transmitting votes and manipulate the results.

The son of former Speaker Jose "Joe" De Venecia Jr. said it would be easy for IT experts, who built the firewalls used to protect Comelec servers, to illegally access into the transmission of votes and use it to favor certain candidates or parties.

Filipino IT experts, who earlier allegedly created the “I Love You” virus that destroyed many programs around the world, are capable of rigging an automated elections, De Venecia said, noting that it is much easier to cheat than in manual voting.