The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has formed a three-man panel that will formally investigate the procurement of the P700 million ballot secrecy folders.

Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said the en banc came out with this decision in a resolution issued Tuesday.

The panel, he said, will be composed of three Comelec officials, namely Atty. Ferdinand Rafanan of the Law Department, Atty. Adolfo Ibanez of the Personnel Department, and Atty. Divina Blas Perez of the Elections and Barangay Affairs Department (EBAD).

“As in all investigations we have to get to the bottom of it and there are matters that have to be looked into and we ask that you give the panel the time to look into it,” said Larrazabal.

The Comelec also cited the possibility of revamping the composition of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) due to the anomaly.

“That’s always a possibility. The BAC is not really a permanent body. Sometimes the composition changes … That’s definitely one of the possibilities,” James Jimenez, Comelec spokesperson, said.

The BAC is composed of Maria Lea Alarkon as chairman, Allen Francis Abaya as vice chairman and Maria Norina Tangaro-Casingal, Martin Niedo, and Antonio Santella as members.

On Tuesday, Comelec Chairman Jose Melo admitted that there was a lapse in judgment on the part of the commission en banc when they approved the awarding of P689.7-million ballot secrecy project to OTC Paper Supply.

Melo said their lapse in judgment came when they “relied so much on the recommendation of the people down below.”

The panel has been given two weeks to present their findings and recommendations to the en banc.

As this developed, United Opposition candidate for vice president Jejomar C. Binay warned Wednesday that there is a high probability that the May 10 elections will be flooded by fake ballots.

Binay warned the Commission on Elections (Comelec) as well as the watchdog groups that would monitor next month’s elections to be more careful with the ultraviolet (UV) lamps that will scan ballots before these are processed by Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines.

“UV markers can easily be purchased, so we can expect that there will be a lot of fake ballots that will be branded with these UV seals that will be passed off as genuine,” he said.

Binay also expressed concern over the multitude of double registrants in the country which the poll body has not purged from the master list.

The solution of the Comelec, which is to buy UV lamps to scan the ballots, increases the opportunity for cheats to intervene, he said, warning that “there are also others who will try to jam signals and manipulate the results of the elections in transit. We are talking here of a resourceful bunch of cheats and the Comelec should not underestimate them.”

In a related development, 95 percent of the 156,000 teachers who took the government examination were certified as IT-capable and will serve as board of election inspectors (BEI) this coming May elections, Department of Science and Technology (DoST) Undersecretary Fortunato Dela Peña said Wednesday.

Training sessions on how to operate the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) were conducted by the Comelec across the country last March.

During the training, teachers were also taught basic troubleshooting techniques.

Written and practical examinations on PCOS operation were given to the teachers, a day after the BEI training. A 60 percent passing grade was required for certification. Those who passed will be assigned to each of the 76,340 precincts nationwide.

“Teachers, regardless of whether they passed or failed the exam, will take part in the elections. Those who passed will be designated to precinct clusters. Every precinct cluster will have one IT-capable member of the BEI,” said Dela Peña.

Meanwhile, Comelec spokesman James Jimenez on Wednesday to critics to be extra careful in making unfounded insinuations, saying this will have an effect on the credibility of the elections.

“We are asking them to be more careful and circumspect with the insinuations they raise. Any unfounded accusations as to the lack of credibility of this elections has a disproportionately large effect on the credibility of the elections as a whole.” (With reports by Czarina Nicole Ong and Mitch Arceo)