WHILE many Filipinos and their traditional and social media are glued to the bickering of lawmakers in the House of Representatives and the Senate, or the threats of inundation and storm surges brought about by the incessant presence of severe storms and super typhoons, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is quietly preparing for the midterm elections next year.
Two reassurances were announced by Comelec Chairman George Garcia over the weekend, both about the automated counting machines that the poll body will use in the elections.
First, Chairman Garcia said last Saturday that the field testing of the automated counting machines (ACMs) and related systems in select areas of the Philippines and abroad has been a success. These field tests are crucial in ensuring the smooth functioning of the electoral process in preparation for the May 2025 midterm elections. The tests, Garcia said, assessed the ACMs’ ability to count votes accurately, transmit results, and integrate with the transmission systems for fast and precise reporting from polling centers to the Comelec’s central servers.
‘Not only should the Comelec guarantee that the machines are physically in order, they should also be working according to their technical specifications…’
Second, the Comelec chairman assured the public that the ACMs to be used in the elections next year are safe from possible flooding from super typhoon “Pepito” which weakened into a severe tropical storm on Monday. It was confirmed that more than 100,000 of such machines have been delivered by the joint venture of Miru Systems of South Korea and are stored in the poll body’s warehouse in Biñan, Laguna.
“The warehouse is safe from flooding because it is located in a high place,” Garcia said.
Talking about the numbers, we note that the forthcoming delivery of the last batch of 10,000 ACMs would complete the 110,620 ACMs promised under the P18-billion Full Automation with Transparency Audit and Count contract (FASTrAC). The latest ACM delivery was completed last Friday, bringing the total of machines in the Biñan warehouse to 100,920 or 91.23 percent.
It was reported that Miru Systems also completed the external batteries, power cords, SD cards, thermal paper, and smartcards for electoral boards. Also, 100 percent of the servers, printers and laptops that will be used for the consolidation and canvassing of voters at the municipal, city, and provincial levels, the modem/USB kits to be used for transmission of voters, as well as the headsets for use of voters with disability were delivered last September 18.
Not only should the Comelec guarantee that the machines are physically in order, they should also be working according to their technical specifications, thus the need for field tests. The testing is a critical step ahead of the mock elections planned for December, which will include a test of the online voting system, which will be a first in Philippine elections.
“What we want to show here is that the ACMs are all working — from the casting of the vote to the counting, to the transmission of the results,” Garcia said.
We are one with the poll body in giving a premium on early and thorough preparations for the 2025 elections.
