MANILA -- With only four months to go before the anticipated automated elections, Comelec chairman Jose Melo admitted Monday that he worries over the circumstances that might occur before the May 2010 poll.
Melo, who regarded these problems as "birth pains," said that from a scale of 1 to 10, the rating of the Commission on Elections' (Comelec) level of preparedness is only 8.
He confessed that he worries on the upcoming use of the 82,200 precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines this May. Out of the more than 80 thousand machines, only 7,200 arrived before 2009 ended.
In a news conference Monday, Melo said that apart from the delivery of the remaining machines, there are still some problems that bother him.
"In so far as holding automated elections is concerned, our confidence level is high...but there are these problems. It bothers us also," he said.
"I'm very confident that there will be automated elections. Now, there maybe some problems, which we cannot really predict all the time. There maybe some cases where there maybe some hitches here and there," he added.
Melo also admitted that among his dilemma are the issues on substitute candidates, printing the names of the official candidates in the ballots, and the ballot boxes to be used.
He said the law amending the provisions of substitute candidates remains pending in the Congress. The commission is now exploring alternative solutions for it to be able to adapt to the automated system, Melo said.
Under the existing election laws, the name of the substitute candidate must be written by the voters, but Melo said this cannot be applied anymore since the automated elections do not allow it this time.
The poll chief also said that they have mulled over putting extra empty circles in the ballots; however, admitting that this might even create more confusion on the part of the voters.
Melo said if the Congress will not resolve this problem, the poll body may opt to issue a resolution adopting the existing laws that states: a vote for the substituted candidate will be counted in favor of the substitute.
Melo appealed to the candidates and party-lists to respect the office's decision on who should be allowed to run or not. He said several parties have already threatened the commission to bring the cases to the Supreme Court (SC) if prohibited to run.
He said they target to release the final list of candidates this week either Thursday or Friday.
For candidates who will apply for services of security personnel, the Comelec said a 30-day temporary permit will be issued to them.
Candidates who wish to avail of security services must apply to the regional joint security control center (JSCC) led by the Comelec, Philippine National Police (PNP) and Armed Forces of the Philippine (AFP) before they undergo the process of threat assessment.
"If they will favorably submit the application for security, the regional JSCC will issue you a temporary permit but that will be good only for 30 days," said Deputy Director General Jefferson Soriano of the PNP.
If the application for security is granted by the JSCC, only then will the temporary permit be extended until the election period.
"Once the committee will not act on your application, that temporary permit will be revoked," said Soriano.
On the issue on ballot boxes, Melo said he is worried that it may be damaged on the election day.
Based on the project, it will be Smartmatic Corporation that is tasked to produce the ballot boxes to be used beneath the PCOS machines, the Comelec chair said.
He added that they wanted the ballot boxes to be delivered at the same time with the PCOS machines.
Smartmatic, last week, has committed to complete the delivery of the remaining 75,000 PCOS machines one week before the Comelec's February deadline.
But while some of the machines to be used in the automated elections this May were already distributed, a teacher's group lambasted the Comelec for its "slow-paced" voters' information campaign.
Benjo Basas, national president of the 30,000-strong Teachers Dignity Coalition (TDC), said while the Comelec officials have repeatedly stated their readiness for the automated polls, the whole system is not prepared and that the GMA-7 sponsored Sexbomb dancers hit "May Bilog na Hugis Itlog" is better as it has already familiarized the voters with the new technology.
Basas said that aside from the voting public, there is now an urgent need for training and orientation of all the teachers on the use of the PCOS, citing recent surveys showed that more than 60 percent of Filipinos have very little or no knowledge about the computerized poll system.
"By February, we will be busy in school tasks - review for achievement tests, accomplishment of forms, year-end activities. We may not have time for trainings because the school obligations are our priority," he said.
He stressed that the Comelec will have to train some 300,000 personnel. There must be a clear and comprehensive program and sufficient time for this, Basas said.
"The first task is to identify who among the more than 500,000 teachers nationwide are qualified to sit as Board of Election Inspectors (BEI)," he said.
The group said that aside from the technical problems due to sluggish moves of the poll body, legal predicament might also face teachers.
The Comelec earlier said that around 300,000 teachers or even less shall be needed to sit as BEI.
"That is almost half of more than 500,000 teachers who are mandated to work for the previous manual elections and casting their votes on the precincts where they are assigned. The problem is, those votes were not recorded in the precinct where they were registered and therefore, based on records, that voter (teacher) did not cast their votes," Basas said.
Two consecutive instances of such will result to the deactivation of the voter's registration and the voter will not be allowed to vote, he added.
He said their initial estimates showed that some 200,000 teachers may be disenfranchised this coming election.
"We therefore call on the Comelec to allow the teachers for special registration. This issue was also raised in 2004 and 2007 elections," he said.
Earlier, another teachers group also urged the Comelec not to delay anymore the training in the use of the PCOS machines to prevent chaos and other problems arising during the election day.
Comelec Spokesperson James Jimenez, however, said that the training of teachers on the use of the automated machines would only start on February and assured the teachers they have nothing to fear about the new technology.
Melo, for his part, said the automation process will not expose the teachers to long hours of work or to harassment by losing candidates. (MSN/AH/Kathrina Alvarez/Sunnex)