“The malfunctioned vote counting machines (VCMs) did not affect the result of the elections.”
This was stressed by Bacolod City election registrar Ann Janette Lamban after some of the VCMs malfunctioned on Monday, May 13.
Lamban said some polling precincts experienced a mechanical problem, but they were able to fix it immediately.
“We have a contingency to fix our VCMs. This year’s election was generally very peaceful though we encountered some mechanical problem, but still we were able to make it,” she added.
Some of the voter registration verification machines (VRVMs) also malfunctioned and were not used in the midterm elections.
The Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) followed the manual procedure in finding the names of the voters on their lists.
Meanwhile, the final testing and sealing of the four VCMs with corrupted secure digital (SD) cards were conducted on Wednesday.
The Board of Canvassers (BOC) reconvened Wednesday afternoon and waited for the transmission of data from the clustered precincts of Andres Bonificio Elementary School-2 in Barangay 3, Barangay Estefania elementary school, Vista Alegre Elementary School, and Pagla-um Village Elementary School in Barangay Mansilingan.
Due to power interruption in Barangay Mansilingan Wednesday afternoon, the BEIs in Pagla-um Village Elementary School brought the VCM machine to the Bacolod Government Center to continue the loading of uncounted ballots.
Grupo Progreso legal team led by Marvin Tanada said the four SD cards were already fixed and they are still waiting for the transmission of data so the BOC can proclaim the winning candidates.
He said the final testing and sealing of the machines was led by Lamban.
“If they finish the loading of all the ballots and if they have hard time in transmission from the precincts to the BOC, we will resort again or move that the BOC will allow again another manual uploading of the election returns like what we did on Tuesday,” Tanada added.
Tanada noted that the only problem of the transmission is the unstable signal of the internet to transmit the data.
“It’s our ultimate remedy so we can have a proclamation,” he said.
Bacolod City has a total of 312, 816 registered voters, but only 238, 781 voters actually voted, with a total of 353 clustered precincts.
As of 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Comelec records showed that Grupo Progreso led by reelectionist Mayor Evelio Leonardia, reelectionist Congressman Greg Gasataya and reelectionist Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran still took a lead in partial and unofficial result.
For congressional race incumbent Gasataya had 133, 822 votes. Monico Puentevella had 83, 638 votes; and Kevin Moises had 3, 697 votes.
For mayoral race Leonardia had 143, 115 votes; Jocelle Batapa-Sigue had 80, 244 votes; and Ray Carmona had 1, 740 votes.
For vice mayoral race Familiaran had 124, 707 votes and Jude Thaddeus Sayson had 90,803 votes.
For councilor race, 11 candidates of Grupo Progreso are on top 12. They are incumbent Councilor Cindy Rojas with 133,438 votes; incumbent Councilor Renecito Novero with 130,110 votes; Simple Distrito with 121,856 votes; Carl Lopez with 118,560 votes; Al Espino with 115,076 votes; Archie Baribar with 113,219 votes; Israel Salanga with 113,060 votes; Dindo Ramos with 107,003 votes; Bart Orola with 105,186 votes; Ana Marie Palermo with 104,441votes; Elmer Sy with 99, 746 votes.
The last spot is occupied by incumbent Councilor Wilson Gamboa of ABB-MKK with 86, 258 votes.
Tanada said they are also still waiting for the approval of the Commission on Elections national office on their motion to lower the threshold of the proclamation of the top three posts such as the congressional, mayoral and vice-mayoral.
He said that considering that 98 percent of the election returns has been already counted and uploaded, the margin of the winning candidates from congressman, mayor and vice-mayor is so overwhelming.
He added that they are still expecting about 1,269 votes from the four barangays. (MAP)