Rep. Tanjuatco nakiisa sa panawagan para sa Comelec na gamitin ang umiiral na VCMs sa 2025 elections

MAKATITIPID ang gobyerno ng P8 bilyon kapag ikinonsidera ng Commission on Elections (Comelec) na gamitin ang 97,000 vote-counting machines (VCMs) na binili sa Smartmatic sa darating na 2025 elections.

Isa si Rizal 2nd District Rep. Emigdio “Dino” Tanjuatco III na humihikayat sa Comelec na ikonsider ang panawagan upang magamit pa sa mas kailangang public goods and services.

“First and foremost, the P18-billion contract between the Comelec and Miru Systems Co. Ltd. does not comply with the terms of reference (TOR) of the automated election system (AES). I was present during the first demo of Miru’s machines in the Comelec, where I witnessed the deficiencies first hand,” sabi ni Tanjuatco.

Partikular na kinuwestiyon ng mambabatas ang integridad ng vote-counting dahil personal niyang nakita ang Miru prototype machine na nagbasa ng lukot, may marka at punit ang sample ballots sa demostrasyon nito noong Pebrero.

Pinuna rin ni Tanjuatco na minadali ang paglagda sa kontrata sa kabila ng mga panawagan sa Comelec para imbestigahan muna ang kontrobersiyang bumabalot sa Miru bid, lalo na ang magsumite ng South Korean firm ng unused prototype — isang practice na hindi pinapayagan sa batas.

Isa pa rito ang hatol ng Supreme Court na nagkasala ang Comelec ng isang grave abuse of discretion nang i-disqualified nito ang Smartmatic mula sa bidding, ginawa ang Miru na lone bidder na nagbigay daan upang makuha ang deal sa kabila ng mga ulat ng kawalan ng kakayahan humawak ng eleksyon sa mga bansa gaya ng Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) at Iraq, ang ilan dito.

“Instead of spending so much money on an untested AES, which greatly risks failing the Filipino electorate, why not reuse the VCMs in the Comelec’s possession? These machines are still covered by warranty until next year,” diin ni Tanjuatco.

“Reusing these VCMs is a very viable option given the government’s present challenges in providing critical funds to support social amelioration, food security and universal health care,” dagdag pa ng mambabatas.

Para kay Tanjuatco, ang umiiral na VCMs ang pinaka- practical na solusyon upang matuldukan na ang magulong isyu na ibinabato laban sa Comelec-Miru deal.

“The VCMs had been verified to be in working condition, as after retrieval, each VCM was inspected individually and restored to perfect condition, as validated by the Comelec itself,” sabi ni Tanjuatco.

“For the 2025 elections, the voting machine will be used as an optical scanner, allowing the Comelec to utilize its existing machines. The VCM inventory complies with 95% of the requirements for the optical scanner functionality, as specified in the AES’ TOR,” paliwanag ng mambabatas.

“The machines have been tested and they perform well. Only 1.8% of these VCMs experienced issues in the past elections, which is better than expected. For comparison, deploying 100,000 MacBooks can result in up to 10% experiencing issues; for laptops with Microsoft software, it can be even higher — up to 20%,” dagdag pa ni Tanjuatco.

“We enjoin the Comelec to heed the call of a growing number of legislators urging the poll body to instead reuse its own VCMs in the 2025 polls. The billions of pesos in savings can bridge the budgetary gaps in essential services that the government is mandated to provide,” sabi ni Tanjuatco.