The Philippine Online Chronicles

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is considering buying 487 Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines from their 2010 elections corporate partner, Smartmatic-TIM, for use in the special elections.

Special elections are going to be held in towns in Basilan, Lanao del Sur and Bulacan, where a failure of elections was declared in May. If bought, the 487 PCOS machines could also be used in re-counting supposedly erroneous votes.

A previous idea floated by the election body was to buy all 82,200 PCOS machines leased by Smartmatic, for use in the 2013 elections.

Buying all the PCOS machines used during the May elections would cost Comelec around P2 billion, decidedly less than the P7.2 billion owed to Smartmatic for the lease of machines and provision of other elections-related paraphernalia. The 487 PCOS machines on the other hand, will cost around P189,442,403.

According to Comelec chair Jose Melo however, technological advances within the next few years might render the current PCOS machines obsolete.

“We don’t want to be tied down to PCOS, to Smartmatic,” said Melo. “We don’t want to be tied down, [maybe] in three years there might be a great leap in technology.”

The recent report by the House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms, headed by Makati Representative Teddyboy Locsin, called the May elections a “mixed success,” saying that while the technology used was successful, “sporadic cheating” still occurred.

Melo has admitted that there is “vast room for improvement” on the part of Comelec.

“We have to improve to make it almost error-free, criticism-free,” Melo said.

“We can improve in terms of our education program, the instruction of voters. Like the digital signatures—not so many people understood that system that’s why we need an information drive.”

Melo also said that whether the 2013 elections will be automated will largely depend on whether Congress calls for it.

“The truth is, even if we want to, we will have to depend on Congress and the President. Even if the Comelec and the people want automation, if Congress doesn’t appropriate money, there’s nothing we can do,” he said.