Comelec forms technical working group to help draft plan for polls

To ensure that all the election paraphernalia and the 82,200 precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines will be delivered to their destinations on time, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is forming a technical working group (TWG) that will outline plans for such poll undertakings.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said the TWG will be composed of government and non-government entities that will help them draft plans for the transshipment of the election materials.

“The Commission on Elections will be forming a technical working group on logistics and the tracking of the ballots. We have invited representatives from the DoTC (Department of Transportation and Communications), Finance, Marina (Maritime Industry Authority), a bunch of other government agencies including the Philpost, private enterprise Fedex, DHL and all of these in transportation industries in the trade and delivery industry,” Jimenez said.

He said the TWG will meet on Friday.

He said Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza and Finance Secretary Margarito Teves are expected to attend the meeting.

Jimenez said representatives from Air21/FedEx, 2Go Cargo, Coltrans, DHL Philippines, LBC Express Inc., Argo Forwarders, Germalin Enterprises, Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific have also been invited.

Jimenez said the main purpose of the meeting of the different agencies in the transport industry as well as private firms is basically to get their ideas and inputs on how the Comelec could secure the delivery of the election paraphernalia and the PCOS machines.

“The purpose of the meeting is for us (Comelec) to be able to lay down to them our plans on the transshipment of the various (poll) materials, including the PCOS, and to get their input on those plans,” he said.

Jimenez said the Comelec wants to make sure that safety measures are implemented in the transporting of the machines and the materials that will be used for the elections in May.

“It’s very important that this early we get fresh eyes on our plans so that we could avoid mistakes in our plans, So we want to get input from everyone,” he moreover said.

Comelec Chairman Jose Melo earlier said that the poll body has selected 40 regional hubs where the PCOS machines and other election materials will be deployed as early as April 25.

Less than 10 percent of the 82,200 PCOS machines were delivered last week by the consortium of Smartmatic Corp. and Total Information Management Corp. (TIM).

Smartmatic-TIM was supposed to deliver 42,000 machines last month, but due to some hitches it delivered a mere 7,200, which are currently stored in a warehouse in Cabuyao, Laguna.

Smartmatic-TIM, however, committed to complete the delivery of the remaining 75,000 machines one week before the February deadline.  –Marie A. Surbano, Daily Tribune