Comelec to inspect manufacturing of poll machines in Shanghai

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will be sending a two-man team to Shanghai on the first week of December to inspect the factory that is manufacturing the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines, an official said Wednesday. "We’re sending people who have a handle on the technical aspects of the preparations, there will be Comelec representatives for the purpose of ensuring that everything will be going smoothly so that we will make the delivery dates," Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez told reporters at a news briefing at the poll body's headquarters in Manila. Citing the move as "proactive," Jimenez said they are sending the two-man team to evaluate the state of readiness, the production schedules, and the possibility of making the scheduled delivery dates on time. He said the poll body has yet to identify the persons who will be conducting the inspection, adding that only Comelec personnel with a background in engineering and information technology will be considered. Renato Garcia, IT consultant of Comelec chairman Jose Melo, told reporters that he will probably be one of them. Earlier, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III asked the Comelec to explain why it had supposedly let Smartmatic-Total Information Management drop the Taiwanese company JarlTech as the manufacturer of the PCOS machines and instead, switched to a Shanghai-based company. Gene Gregorio, Smartmatic-TIM spokesperson, told GMANews.TV that JarlTech just transferred its operations to Shanghai because it is less likely to be affected by typhoons, unlike Taiwan. Jimenez added that the supply lines are reportedly better in Shanghai. If there are no problems, he said they expect 42,200 PCOS machines to be delivered by December while 40,000 more will be delivered in February. Jimenez said the PCOS machines will only have a base configuration when they arrive in the country. The machines will then undergo a battery of tests and will then be configured for a specific precinct. "When they pass the testing stage, that is the time when we will configure them based on the precinct assignments because every precinct is unique," he said. Earlier, Smartmatic-TIM also explained that the Aboitiz-owned forwarder 2Go did not pull out from its contract to provide logistics services in terms of delivering and maintaining the machines all over the country. Gregorio said that they only added regional forwarders to 2Go in order to incur “lesser risks." Meanwhile, Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said Smartmatic-TIM will also be conducting a site survey of the poll precincts all over the Philippines in coordination with the Department of Education. "We will also be conducting a technical workshop this week, the purpose of this workshop is to provide the framework for the voting process and the design of the workplace and classroom itself," he told reporters. - GMANews.TV