Brillantes: PCOS machines can still be used in 2016

MANILA, Philippines - Will the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines be used again in the 2016 elections?

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said he will still recommend the use of PCOS machines in the 2016 elections although he will by then be retired from the Comelec.

“I think we can still use this for another one. But if it will go the same way that happened to me in 2013, my replacement will be pitiful. What he will be doing is defend himself against those who have nothing new to say,” Brillantes said, referring to individuals who criticized the poll body for re-using the PCOS machines in last week’s election.

The Comelec chief said the “best procedure” would be to replace the machines that have malfunctioned with new ones.

“You can buy the same machines. That’s what we wanted in 2013 if we were given the budget. We wanted really 120,000 instead of 80,000. That would have solved the queuing problems (to polling precincts) immediately,” he added.

He also noted that Filipinos are already used to PCOS machines, which were first utilized during the 2010 polls, but he admitted that transmission must be improved.

“We should concentrate more on the transmission aspect. That’s where the small glitches (are)... Transmission is a little problem that I think we know that we can improve,” he said.

Brillantes also said he could not agree with the proposals of Comelec’s critics of using the Open Election System (OES) instead of the PCOS system.

In OES, the voting and counting remain manual while the canvassing and transmission of votes are automated.

But Brillantes said under Republic Act 9369, or the poll automation law, combination is not allowed and those criticizing the Comelec for using the PCOS system are the ones pushing for OES.

Brillantes, however, clarified that he agreed that the Comelec must already have its own automated election system.

He also urged the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee to convene soon to assess the 2013 elections, saying that under the law the JCOC should meet within the next few months after the elections when the problems are fresh.

“After the elections in 2010, there is an oversight committee, JCOC. JCOC should’ve met to assess the 2010 elections but they did not meet. They convened close to the election already,” Brillantes recalled.

“I would like the JCOC to meet as soon as possible. As soon as Congress convenes so that we can report to the committee and assess what were the problems in the elections,” he added.

Prove allegations – PPCRV

Meanwhile, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) yesterday urged critics of the automated elections to prove their allegations.

“They should be able to give real data (and not) data out of imagination, not out of perception, because... (this is) for the credibility of elections and as a learning process we should be able to give statistical data,” said PPCRV national chair Henrietta de Villa.

The former ambassador to the Vatican added that the criticisms and observations of last week’s polls should be used as a basis for the preparation for the presidential elections in 2016.

By 2016, they “would know where to put the improvements, and it would not be pure hearsay or perception because we could not make up those things if we are to make actual reforms or actual improvements on our automated election,” De Villa added.

The Catholic Church election watchdog also said that based on the initial information they received, only less than 200 PCOS machines malfunctioned during the elections. – With Evelyn Macairan