The Commission on Elections (Comelec) in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) on Thursday said CAR is among the three regions that showed a 100 percent success rate during the final testing of the automated counting machines (ACMs) on Wednesday.
“Handa na tayo, CAR is one of the three regions na nag-100 percent successful ang final testing and sealing out of the 18 regions (We are ready with CAR being one of the three regions with 100 percent successful final testing and sealing out of the 18 regions),” Torres said on the sidelines of a press conference on the Early Voting Task Force.
He said there were minor problems encountered in about five polling precincts, but these were immediately addressed.
He said the presence of provincial Comelec hubs in all six Cordillera provinces made it easier to address the issues, including smudges in the printed result, receipt paper cutter not working properly, and incompatible Universal Serial Bus (USB) used to activate the ACM.
“Iyong mga nagloloko ang printer at ang cutter (Those with dysfunctional printer and cutter), they cannot be repaired so they were replaced with the contingency machines that were stored in the different hubs,” Torres said.
He said that before the end of the day, the minor problems encountered were solved and the ACMs were sealed.
“Ready na ang lahat ng machines natin dito sa Kordilyera, nakadeploy na lahat ng machines at sealed saka binabantayan ng kapulisan. Mabubuksan na lang sila sa Monday sa election (All our machines in the Cordillera are ready sealed and have been deployed, being watched by the police. They will only be opened on Monday, during the election),” Torres said.
He said that they will also start deploying, initially in far-flung areas, the ballots, which are still in the custody of the different treasury offices of the municipalities and cities about two days before the election on May 12.
The official also said they are following up on the chopper committed by the Philippine National Police to be stationed at the Loakan airport that can be used if the need arises.
“We are also requesting from the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines), which we will stand by in Abra,” he said.
Abra is the sole area of concern in the region with three municipalities under the “orange” security category and six under “yellow” category.
