Slightly more than half of voting machines delivered to hubs, Comelec says

Slightly more than half of automated voting machines have already been delivered to their respective hubs, ready to be dispatched to precincts on May 10, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said. A total of 41,817 — or 54 percent — of the 82,200 Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines have been delivered to the hubs where these will be stored until they have to be transferred to the precincts, Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said. As of April 26 9 a.m., 35,279 PCOS units have been delivered to the Visayas and Mindanao while 6,538 have been delivered to Luzon, he said. Delivery of voting machines is being undertaken be region because it is more efficient that way. "Some hubs might be located in one province but they also serve as hubs for other areas," he said. Areas where machines have already been delivered are as follows:

• Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union, Pangasinan (Region I);
• Abra, Benguet, Mt. Province, Ifugao (CAR);
• Cagayan, Batanes, Tuguegarao, Isabela, Aurora (Region II);
• Bataan, Zambales, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija (Region III);
• Cavite, Batangas, Rizal (Region IVA);
• Marinduque, Masbate, Mindoro, Romblon, Palawan (Region IVB);
• Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Legaspi, Catanduanes, Sorsogon (Region V);
• Bacolod City, Iloilo City, Roxas City (Region VI);
• Cebu City, Tagbiliran City, Dumaguete City (Region VII);
• Tacloban City (Region VIII);
• Zamboanga City, Dipolog City (Region IX);
• Cagayan de Oro, Ozamis City (Region X);
• Davao City (Region XI);
• Cotabato City, General Santos City (Region XII); and
• Butuan City (Region XIII).

Last week, 14 PCOS machines were reported missing after an inventory of the poll machines that reached Zamboanga City yielded only 424 machines from the total 438 needed in the area. The equipment were later on found to have been left behind in poll machine supplier Smartmatic's warehouse in Cabuyao, Laguna. The Comelec earlier said that the three forwarders in charge of transporting voting machines around the country — Germalin Enterprises, Ace Logistics, and Argo Forwarders — will be held liable if the PCOS machines do not reach their locations on time. The PCOS machines must reach their designated precincts three days before the elections for the testing and sealing. On the other hand, Larrazabal said that as of April 25 8 p.m., the deployment of the official ballots for Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat, Agusan del Sur, Agusan del Norte, Zamboanga, Bukidnon, Lanao del Sur, Palawan, and Masbate has already begun. Smartmatic bagged the contract to deploy the ballots with the help of forwarder Air 21. The printing of the 50,850,940 ballots to be used in May finished last week. - RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV