BETWEEN 400 and 600 vote-counting machines were found to be defective and needed to be replaced on Election Day, May 13, forcing several polling precincts to open hours later than the schedule.
Commission on Elections (Comelec) spokesperson James Jimenez said the number could still go up as reports come in from the field offices.
But he downplayed the problem, saying the proportion of faulty machines is small compared to the total of 85,000 VCMs nationwide.
"The figure is small out of the 85,000. So it seems to me it is still within range. The reason it is so jarring is that we have fewer incidents in 2016," Jimenez said in a press briefing at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) Forum Tent.
"These are the VCMS we used in 2016. I cannot rule out that possibility that these malfunctioned because of that," he added.
President Rodrigo Duterte, in an interview after he cast his vote in Davao City, said he would hear the Comelec's explanation on the defective machines before calling for an investigation.
He said it would be "early" to conduct an inquiry into reports of the malfunction, which caused delays in some polling precincts in several parts of the country.
The President said he would let the Comelec to exercise its independence by letting the public know the real reason why some VCMs are not working.
"That would be early [to call for an investigation]," he said, when sought for reaction on some voters' complaint against the faulty VCMs.
"Comelec is an independent body. And if there's any malfunction or if there's any aberration at all in the procedure of the process in the conduct of election, let Comelec explain first to the people before we even initiate a sort of investigation. That is the cognizance of the separation of powers of our independent commissions," he added.
Among those that experienced delays were some voting precincts in Isabela, Zambales, Naga City in Cebu, Samar, Compostela Valley, and Sultan Kudarat.
Aside from the VCMs, the poll official pointed to faulty SD cards as the reason behind the delays in voting.
"Right now, the primarily cause of delay that we are lookinh at are the SD cards. Some of the SD cards are not functioning and would have to be replaced," said Jimenez.
Considering the malfunctioning VCMs and SD cards, he said they will no longer be surprised if there will be sectors that shall question the credibility of the midterm elections.
Jimenez said this is because the conduct of elections is the sole mandate of the Comelec.
"We never said this will be perfect elections. We've never said that to any of our elections. We also said that with so many machines in use, it is inevitable that some of them will experience malfunctions," said Jimenez.
There are over 61 million registered voters who are expected to cast their votes in the midterm polls. (HDT/Ruth Abbey Gita/SunStar Philippines)