Poll machine tests extended

BAGUIO CITY -- The poll body has extended until Sunday the testing and sealing of voting machines, as the configured compact flash (CF) cards to be used in the May polls have yet to be delivered to several areas in the country.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) earlier promised to deliver all the reconfigured CF cards to thousands of precincts on Friday after it recalled 76,300 Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) memory cards that were found to be defective.

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The glitch initially raised fears of a chaotic failure of the country's first automated elections, and officials have repeatedly tried to stamp out rumors that Monday's vote would be delayed.

On Friday, however, more groups and individuals have expressed doubt in the country's poll automation system due to the delay in the arrival of the configured CF cards that will be used on election day to store ballot data.

Election officials in this city, in Benguet, Mountain Province, as well as in several areas in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao regions have yet to receive the new memory cards for the PCOS machines.

Smartmatic Baguio-Benguet and Mountain Province coordinator Marivic Madayag said despite the assurance of their head office, the reconfigured CF cards have yet to be delivered at the Smartmatic hub in Philippine Economic Zone Authority in Loakan.

The reconfigured CF memory cards were supposed to be delivered Friday evening.

Madayag expects that by May 8, all the 1,783 memory cards for the region will arrive and will be given directly to municipal election officers, who will insert the card into the PCOS machines that were already deployed to the towns in the region.

In Baguio-Benguet, Provincial Election Supervisor Elenita Tabangin said the Comelec has already started the deployment of PCOS machines to Atok, Itogon, Kabayan, La Trinidad, Sablan, and Tublay without their memory cards.

Comelec Regional Director Ederlino Tabilas said the deployment of PCOS machines will continue without the cards because "waiting for the reconfigured cards could mean further delays."

Madayag, meanwhile, said that once the reconfigured CF cards arrive Saturday, it will be delivered simultaneously to municipal election officers who will do the appropriate tests and seal them to ensure the PCOS machines will not malfunction on May 10.

In Sta. Ana, Pampanga, the testing and sealing of the PCOS machines also did not push through as the reconfigured CF cards were not delivered for Friday's mock elections there.

Violeta David, Comelec municipal officer, said teachers who will serve as members of Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) have been diligently waiting in their respective precincts but the memory cards did not arrive as scheduled.

David, however, said the testing of the PCOS machines can still be done anytime Saturday until Sunday.

In Cagayan de Oro City in Mindanao, poll watch groups were also dismayed over the postponement of mock elections in all clustered precincts in the city Friday due to the delay in the arrival of the PCOS memory cards.

Andy Ligsanan, principal 1 of City Central School in Cagayan de Oro City, said the Comelec has not even issued any prior notice for the delay.

The mock election was supposedly done to test the viability of the PCOS machines, which arrived in the city last week and stored in a warehouse in Cugman town.

With the postponement, around 200 volunteers of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), poll watchers and teachers were advised to return to their assigned precincts on Saturday for the final testing and sealing of the PCOS machines.

Leobilito Obsioma, an official of the Department of Education (DepEd) who was tasked to coordinate with Comelec, said that despite the delay, the teachers who would assist in the manning of the PCOS machines are 99 percent ready for Monday's election.

"The final testing and sealing of PCOS machines would definitely push through today in all clustered precincts in the city as well as in Misamis Oriental," Obsioma said.

This was echoed by Comelec Spokesperson James Jimenez, who assured Friday that the elections will push through as the poll body is already 98 percent ready.

He added that more than half of the total CF cards recalled on Monday have been dispatched.

As of 3 p.m. Friday, more than 50,000 memory cards were already shipped from the warehouse in Cabuyao, Laguna after they were configured by Smartmatic technicians.

The poll body earlier said that five percent of the total 76,340 memory cards will not arrive in the precincts, mostly in far-flung areas, before election day.

"Hopefully, these CF cards will arrive much earlier than initially expected and we hope that the five percent worst case scenario would not come to pass," Jimenez said.

These areas include all municipalities in Basilan, Maguindanao, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Lanao del Norte, Lano del Sur, Misamis Occidental, Surigao del Norte, and Surigao del Sur.

PCOS machines in some municipalities in Negros Occidental, Isabela, Cagayan, Palawan, and Zamboanga del Norte may also not contain memory cards before election day due to the delays caused by the reconfiguration.

But in precincts where there are no CF cards before election day, voters will still be able to cast their votes and their ballots will be kept in the ballot box, Jimenez said.

He, meanwhile, denied reports that the cards may be manipulated to affect the election results. (JM Agreda of Sun.Star Baguio/HPM of Sun.Star Pampanga/NJM of Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro/Kathrina Alvarez/Sunnex)