234 areas for RMA selected

MANILA, Philippines - It only took only a press of a button to select the 234 priority cities/municipalities for the Random Manual Audit (RMA).

The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) selected the city/municipal precincts that the random manual audit would cover.

Henrietta de Villa, Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) chairperson and Random Manual Audit Committee (RMAC) head, said the selection of contingency cities/municipalities and clustered precincts was necessary.

“In case there would be a problem, for instance it would be difficult to reach these selected areas, then we would be able to replace them automatically,” she said.

National Statistics Office administrator Carmelita Ericta, an RMAC member, said in the first automated polls in 2010 it took them eight hours to complete the selection of the 234 priority cities/municipalities.

They used a tambiolo to pick the precincts that the RMA would cover, she added.

Under the Automated Random Selection Process (ARSP), they first initialized the database to clear it and produce an empty report.

They would then facilitate the simultaneous random selection of priority city/municipality in each of the 234 legislative districts.

They also chose the 234 contingency city/municipality in each of the 234 legislative districts.

The list of selected priority and contingency cities/municipalities would then be printed and distributed.

They would then close and wrap the computing machine used in the selection process.

The computer would only be reopened on Sunday when they resume the random selection process to select the priority and contingent clustered precincts in the selected city/municipality.

Watchdogs call for manual count

Poll watchdogs rallied at the Comelec in Intramuros, Manila yesterday to demand a parallel manual count of votes.

Tanggulang Demokrasya (TanDem) legal counsel Dindo Donato said they have already filed a petition before the Supreme Court to stop the Comelec from proclaiming the election winners until after a manual count of all votes.

“Since we can no longer stop the elections and the use of PCOS, we have asked the High Court to stop proclamation of election winners,” he said. – Evelyn Macairan, Mayen Jaymalin, Paolo Romero