The Philippine Online Chronicles

Only 30,000 precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines will be delivered from Suzhou, China before the month ends due to high shipping costs and increase in volume of deliveries made during the holiday season, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Jose Melo said on Monday.

Winning contractor Smartmatic-Total Information Management, Inc. (TIM) will “probably” fail to complete its promised 42,000 PCOS machines by December, slating to deliver the remaining 12,000 units in January 2010. They, however, were confident that they can ship 82,200 PCOS machines in February with their partner Qisda company targeting 3,000-machine production a day.

“Basically we're in line with the schedule, our deliveries are being made in time,” Cesar Flores, President of Smartmatic Asia, said in an interview with ABS-CBN.

Aside from delay in arrival, training of 400,000 teachers who will serve as members of the board of election inspectors (BEI) in precincts were also moved. Comelec earlier announced that the training was to be held in November but was moved to February. However, Education Secretary Jesli Lapus confronted the latest advisory from Comelec law chief Ferdinand Rafanan that the said training will again be postponed to March and April.

“Our teachers don’t want to be blamed and become the scapegoats of any failure caused by the lack of preparations due to project timetable slippage,” Lapus said in an Inquirer interview.

Melo expressed uneasiness until he sees the machines complete and ready for the May 2010 elections. He, however, clarified that the delay does not include the manufacturing of the machines where most have supposedly been assembled by Qisda.

Last week, 100 PCOS machines have arrived to be used for voter training and education.

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