Half of poll machines ready

MANILA, Philippines – Smartmatic International Corp.-Total Information Management Corp. has finished manufacturing nearly half of the 82,200 precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines to be used in the May 2010 polls.

Smartmatic president for Asia Pacific Cesar Flores said that their factory in Suzhou, China has churned out 40,000 units so far.

“The factory is working full time. We have produced over 40,000 machines already,” Flores said.

“We have delivered to forwarders over 38,000 machines. They are no longer in our factory,” he said.

Flores explained that once the forwarding companies receive the machines, they coordinate with shipping companies for the delivery of the units to the Philippines.

The joint venture said this was the reason why it could not give specific dates on the machines’ arrival.

“When we give an estimated time of arrival, it will then depend on the ships and availability of the ships,” he added.

Smartmatic spokesman Gene Gregorio said 8,000 of the 40,000 machines arrived in the Philippines last Sunday.

He said 2,400 more units are expected to arrive anytime this month.

Gregorio said the 7,320 PCOS machines delivered to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) last year were not part of the 40,000 units.

Flores maintained that they intend to complete the production of all the machines before the end of January.

Based on the Comelec’s timeline, Smartmatic-TIM must turn over all of the machines by Feb. 21.

Flores assured the Comelec that Smartmatic-TIM can meet the deadline. “We have been delivering machines to many countries and we never missed an election,” he said.

“Even if the machines would have been here in July (2009), they will be gathering dust in our warehouse. We’re not going to touch them until the end of March which is when we start programming them, packaging them and shipping them to different precincts,” he added.

Concerns

Executive officials, meanwhile, said they have worries but are generally confident of Comelec’s implementation of voter’s education and training of teachers who will serve as Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) in the 2010 polls.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said there is a need for the poll body to ensure that voters know how to cast their votes using the PCOS machines.

“We are quite confident that the Comelec will able to implement and oversee the elections on May 10, 2010. They are quite prepared,” he added.

Ermita and Vice President Noli de Castro led Cabinet secretaries who were briefed by the Comelec on the automated elections.

De Castro said that based on reports from the field, the voter’s education being conducted by the Comelec is not enough, adding that the Comelec should go down to the barangay level and embark on massive tri-media advertisements to familiarize voters with the automation system.

But Melo said the PCOS system is secured and not easy to penetrate.

“Before I was having nightmares (because machines were not yet delivered). But now, my nightmares have turned into dreams,” he maintained.

Unenthusiastic OFWs

Meanwhile, an official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines said many overseas Filipino workers in Europe do not believe that the automated polls will assure clean and honest elections.

“In my interview with OFWs in Europe, they said that the government must first prove that it is credible. This is why it is difficult for us to convince them to join in the overseas absentee voting (OAV),” CBCP-Episcopal Commission on Migrants and Itinerant People (ECMI) secretary general Fr. Edwin Corros said. – With Sheila Crisostomo, Philippine Star