By: Sheila
Crisostomo
MANILA, Philippines - Smartmatic International
Corp. gave assurances that the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines used
in the country’s first automated polls in 2010 are still in “perfect condition”
and can be used again in next year’s elections.
In an interview last Thursday, Smartmatic president
for Asia Pacific Cesar Flores said the machines are well maintained in the
company’s warehouse in Laguna.
“There won’t be a problem with the machines. They are in perfect condition,” he told The
STAR, days after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced that they
would again use the PCOS machines in the 2013 midterm elections.
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The Comelec has two options in acquiring the PCOS
machines – to lease brand new machines through public bidding or to exercise the poll body’s “option to purchase” from
Smartmatic.
Smartmatic was contracted for P7.2 billion by the
Comelec to lease out 82,200 PCOS machines in the 2010 polls. Of these, the agency bought 920 units for
electoral protest cases while the rest were kept in Smartmatic’s Laguna
warehouse.
The poll body however is in a quandary because it
was given a measly P7-billion budget for the 2013 elections. If Comelec decides to lease brand new
machines, this will eat up P6.2 billion of the budget.
If the Comelec buys the 2010 PCOS machines, it will
cost only P1.8 billion but some poll watchdogs and civic groups are wary of its
condition while in storage and its alleged defects in the 2010 polls. They also
questioned the security and accuracy of the machines.
But according to Flores,
there is no reason to question the machines’ security and accuracy.
He added that the Random Manual Audit (RMA)
conducted by the Parish Pastoral Council Voting (PPCRV) and the Comelec and the
results of the recount proceedings for electoral protest cases being conducted
by the poll body are “two validations” on the quality of the machines.
In RMA, the PPCRV and Comelec have randomly
selected polling precincts where they audited the PCOS count against manual
count.
In recount proceedings, on the other hand, the
Comelec checks on the validity of an electoral protest case by comparing the
poll results from 20 percent of the contested polling precincts with results
when the ballots are manually counted.
Flores said the issues against PCOS machines had nothing
to do with the technology.
“Many people are blaming the PCOS system on problems that were more procedural, managerial and
even time-related or planning related. They
have nothing to do with the PCOS machines,” he maintained.
He cited for instance the disabling of the
“ultraviolet (UV) rays capability” of the machines that prompted the Comelec to
purchase handheld UV lamp scanners.
Flores said that if the timeline for the printing of the
ballots was followed, this would have not happened.
The printing of the ballots at the government-run National Printing Office (NPO) was delayed
for two months because the Comelec had extended the deadline for the filing of
certificates of candidacy.
“The date to start printing the data was late so we
had less time to print. What happens
when you print faster… you are injecting less ink in the paper. What happens is the ultraviolet ink was not
sufficient to be detected by the PCOS. If we have more time to print, we could have,
maybe, get up with a higher concentration of the chemical reaction or we could
have printed slower,” he said.
Aside from this, Flores said that two days before
the printing started, the NPO also insisted that its own security mark be
included in the ballots, thus, further delaying the printing.
“We are being blamed for something we have zero
fault,” he added.
Flores said since late 2010, the Comelec and
Smartmatic have been working together to modify the PCOS system in preparation
for the August 2011 regional election in the Autonomous Region in Muslim
Mindanao which was shelved and synchronized with next year’s election.
“This was requested to us by the end of 2010, thinking
about the ARMM election. Changes were
already implemented and these things have already been addressed by the Comelec
and Smartmatic together,” he added.
