Arrival of ballots provokes tighter security at City Hall
-A A +ASunday, May 2, 2010
CEBU CITY Treasurer Ofelia Oliva ordered around-the-clock security for the official ballots, which arrived yesterday afternoon and will be kept at City Hall until these are distributed on May 9.
Oliva said she received 560 boxes, containing 1,000 official ballots each, from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Manila through Air 21 cargo forwarder.
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It took 20 minutes to transfer the ballots from the Mactan Cebu International Airport to City Hall, escorted by the Special Weapons and Tactics (Swat) police team.
The city treasurer has designated 12 distribution centers, six each for the north and south districts. The south district has 34 barangays, while the north district has 46.
Oliva designated assistant treasurers Emma Villarete and Tessie Camarillo to serve as overall team leaders in the south and north districts, respectively.
“We will exercise transparency, that’s why we are sending notices to all accredited political parties, all accredited citizens’ arms and accredited party-lists about our activities,” Oliva said.
On May 3, the City Treasurer’s Office (CTO) will open the packs of election forms, supplies and paraphernalia received from the Comelec-Manila last April 30. They will also open the old ballot boxes and dispose of their contents and materials.
On May 7, Oliva said, the Precinct Count Optical Scanner (PCOS) machines will undergo final testing, before being sealed in all the polling places. All election forms, supplies and paraphernalia will also be sent to the distribution centers.
The distribution of various election forms, supplies and paraphernalia to all Boards of Election Inspectors (BEI) will be on May 8. The next day, May 9, Oliva said they will transfer the official ballots to the distribution centers.
“From 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. on election day, our personnel will dispatch the packs of official ballots from the designated distribution centers to all clustered precincts,” Oliva said.
There are 2,938 precincts in Cebu, which have been clustered into 560. There are 516,234 voters in the city’s 80 barangays.
