Comelec: Vote counting machines deployment 90% complete

MANILA, Philippines — Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Sheriff Abas assured the public that 90 percent of the vote counting machines (VCMs) that will be used in the May 9 national and local elections have already been deployed.

Abas, chair of the Comelec Packing and Shipping Committee, said that only the VCMs to be used in the National Capital Region have yet to be deployed which are still in their warehouse in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.

"We are already 90 percent done with deployment. What is remaining are those for NCR, which we hope to deploy before the Final Testing and Sealing (FTS)," he said.

The official noted that the machines were now in the regional hubs and would be transferred to the polling precincts next week, May 2 to 6, in time for the FTS.

“If we do the deployment earlier, we could have problems. We don’t want to compromise the machines,” Abas said.

As a policy, the Comelec prioritizes the deployment of VCMs, official ballots and other election paraphernalia to far places. First in line is the overseas absentee voting (OAV), followed by the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao while Metro Manila is the last place to received the election Materials.

Abas said they started the deployment of ballots last Monday, in far-flung areas such as the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Batanes, and the rest of Mindanao, it will be followed by regions in the Visayas, Cordillera Administrative Region, and Cagayan Valley and they expect to finish the deployment around May 4. — Vanessa Bernardo, intern

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