MANILA – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has started the Hardware Acceptance Test (HAT) on the automated counting machines (ACMs) and other devices that will be used in the May 2025 midterm polls.
Comelec chair George Erwin Garcia said Thursday 856 ACMs and 80 transmission devices have passed the testing by personnel of South Korean service provider Miru and was approved by Comelec supervisors.
"We inspect every hardware component of the machines. We have to adopt the highest quality standard because we deserve no less. That's value for money," he said in a press briefing after inspecting the ongoing HAT at the poll body's warehouse in Biñan, Laguna.
He said so far, only three ACMs have had malfunctioning components which required inspection and minor repair.
"But after repairing it and it still malfunctioned, it has to be replaced. That's the rule. Even if only one component malfunctioned, the entire machine will be replaced," Garcia said.
Meanwhile, the 2,200 laptops for the Consolidation and Canvassing System have been fully delivered and shall undergo HAT by next week.
"Hopefully, we can finish everything here before the end of December so that we can focus on our other activities," Garcia said.
Apart from these tests, 5 percent of every delivery batch undergoes various stress tests to ensure the machines can withstand other factors that may impact the elections around the country.
The machines will also undergo field testing, mock election testing, and final testing in the coming months.
Garcia said they expect all the 110,000 ACMs to be delivered in the Philippines by November.
"We were informed by Miru that by October, they will be finishing the entire 110,000 units. Therefore, by November, they can already complete the delivery of 110,000 ACMs. It was supposed to be December based on the contract. But since they'll be able to complete the production by October, they will be completing the delivery by November," he said.
Miru vice president for overseas sales Ken Cho said the delivery of all the machines will be a month earlier than their target delivery completion.
"That's way ahead of our milestone schedule... We are at least a month ahead of schedule," he said in a separate interview.
Some 27,500 ACMs have been shipped in the Philippines from South Korea and are now stored in the Comelec warehouse.
At least 30,000 units are set to arrive this month and in October. (PNA)
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