ILOILO – The Commission on Elections (Comelec)-Iloilo announced that 88 contingency automated counting machines (ACMs) are ready to be deployed to capacitate and address any unprecedented technical problems that may arise during the May 12 midterm elections.
According to Atty. Reinier Layson, provincial election supervisor for Comelec-Iloilo, each city and municipal election office in the province, including the cities of Iloilo and Passi, will have at least two contingency ACMs.
He added that a technical repair hub will be established in every province. These hubs will be responsible for fixing malfunctioning ACMs to ensure the smooth conduct of the elections.
The final testing and sealing of ACMs is scheduled five days before May 12. Prior to this, all ACMs will be delivered to the voting centers.
“Five days after the final testing and sealing will be, of course, the D-day, or election day. To our understanding, prior to the final testing and sealing, the machines will be deployed already to our voting centers. From then on, our Philippine National Police (PNP) personnel will be deployed in their respective precincts of assignments,” Layson said.
The provincial election supervisor added that multi-sectoral agencies in the province, including the Comelec, Department of Education (DepEd) Region 6, PNP, and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) are all ready for the upcoming elections.
For their part, DepEd-6 Information Officer Hernani Escullar Jr. said that around 2,801 schools and 7,337 classrooms will be used as polling centers across the region.
A total of 35,949 teaching personnel and 2,875 non-teaching personnel will be deployed.
Escullar added that around 2,217 other personnel will be deployed on election day to maintain the cleanliness of schools utilized as voting centers./PN
