George Garcia: If victorious, proclamation of 19 bets to be suspended

Automated counting machines. File photo from Philippine News Agency

MANILA, Philippines — If victorious, the proclamation of 19 candidates in the local elections will be suspended, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairperson George Garcia said on Monday.

Garcia, in a press briefing on Monday, said that they expect more orders of proclamation suspension to be issued within the day. That is due to the candidates being involved in alleged poll violations and other issues.

“The Commission, as instructed by the en banc, has released 19 orders of suspension and (it’s) possible that the orders of suspension directed against certain individuals or candidates may increase as we move on with the day. Because that was just what the Commission acted upon earlier,” Garcia, speaking in mixed Filipino and English, told reporters.

The Comelec head, however, asked that the names be withheld as elections are still ongoing in some areas.

Regarding the automated counting machines (ACMs), Garcia said that only 311 ACMs were replaced out of the 16,000 that Comelec has placed on standby.

“For the entire day, the commission […] was able to replace 311 machines out of the 16,000 contingency machines that we have,” he said.

Data provided by Garcia showed that the following were the issues that caused ACMs to be replaced:

• ACM scanner (77)
• thermal printer (73)
• thermal cutter (60)
• thermal paper (35)
• entire ACM (15
• ACM cover (13)
• USB device (10)
• manual audit (8)
• ballots (5)
• operational concern (2)
• procedural (1)
• smart card (1)

Despite the presence of issues, Garcia said the number of ACMs replaced was significantly less compared to the incidents recorded during the 2022 national elections.

Far fewer ACMs replaced

“So, as compared to the 2022 elections, where during the first few hours of the voting, 2,500 machines were immediately replaced by Comelec, here in all fairness, we only replaced 311 machines,” said Garcia in mixed Filipino and English.

Several issues have already been reported in the first eight hours of voting.  Earlier, netizens have complained about ACMs not accepting shaded ballots — or ballots used by individuals who have cast their votes already.

READ: Meycauayan voters: Shaded ballots not being fed to ACMs

Even Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas senatorial candidate and former senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson said he experienced a minor glitch when he cast his vote in Imus, Cavite.

Lacson said his ballot was not immediately accepted by the machine.

READ: Lacson experiences glitch with voting machine

The Comelec is currently using new machines, after the poll body and South Korean firm Miru Systems Co. Ltd. (Miru Systems) inked a P18-billion contract for the lease of an automated election system.

The contract however was placed under scrutiny, as Comelec was questioned why it was spending more funds when the Philippine government already had existing vote counting machines (VCMs) from Smartmatic, the previous AES provider.

Comelec has opted not to reuse Smartmatic’s VCMs due to several issues in past elections, like the 2,000 VCMs that bogged down during the 2022 presidential poll.