Delivery of election equipment, supplies starts

THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) will start on Saturday the dispatch of election forms, supplies, equipment and paraphernalia to forwarding companies for distribution to different areas in the country.
 
"All accredited political parties, party-list participants, citizens' arms and concerned groups are hereby informed that effective March 16, 2013, the PSC (Packing and Shipping Committee) shall commence the dispatch of all election-related forms, supplies, equipment and paraphernalia," said the Comelec.
 
But in a separate interview, Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes clarified that those to be sent out initially are those that will be used in the training of Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs).
 
"You can only train by bringing in the machines. Our contract for deployment includes those for training purposes only. This is not deployment for purposes of elections as yet," the poll chief said.
 
To note, the deployment services was cornered by two companies, namely: Airfreight 2100, Inc. (Air21), and the 2GO Express and 2GO Logistics Joint Venture (2GO).
 
Air21 will ship election supplies and equipment to Regions 1, 2, 3, 4A, 4B, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, Cordillera Administrative Region, National Capital Region, and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
 
2GO, on the other hand, will handle the delivery in Regions 6, 7, and 8.
 
Brillantes, meantime, assured that the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines to be delivered to the provinces are in good shape. The machines have remained idle in a warehouse in Cabuyao, Laguna, for the past three years after they were used in May 2010 automated elections.
 
"We have a continuing assessment of the PCOS machines in the assembly, configuration, and production lines (in Cabuyao). If there is a need to replace some, we are doing that already," Brillantes said.
 
Last year, the Comelec had purchased from Smartmatic a total of 81,280 PCOS units to be used in the midterm elections in May. (HDT/Sunnex)