IN preparation for next year’s midterm elections, the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) has leased 110,000 automated counting machines or ACMs from the South Korean firm Miru Systems.
This was announced by Director John Rex Laudiangco, the COMELEC spokesperson.
In August, Laudiangco said, the first 20,000 machines will arrive.
“We expect that this month the first 200 will arrive where all the COMELEC’s requested customization features are already there. if it is approved next month in August, the first 20,000 machines will arrive,” according to Dir. John Rex Laudiangco Spokesperson, COMELEC.
For the succeeding month, 30,000 ACMs are expected to arrive.
These new machines will continue to be delivered to the country until 110,000 machines are completed by December this year.
The COMELEC assured that there will be no delay in the arrival of these machines to be used in the midterm polls.
Meanwhile, the COMELEC clarified again that the new machines are only leased and not purchased.
“These new machines are not purchased by the COMELEC, they are just rented to be guaranteed that everything is new, modern technology. The COMELEC will not pay for the warehouse, will not pay for the person to maintain…, And above all we will not pay the insurance premium for our GSIS. The COMELEC saved over a hundred million,” Laudiangco added.
Based on the study of COMELEC, the performance of the new election machines from Miru Systems is doing good.
Laudiangco shared that this past month, 20 demonstration machines arrived.
COMELEC asked teachers, students and some government officials to test the demonstration machines of the new ACM.
He said the new machine is working well and the system is fine.
“We are at Rizal College of Taal, Batangas, and in the heat of this weather, our demonstration machine of the new ACM worked flawlessly,” Laudiangco expressed.
Laudiangco shared some of the most important features of the new machines and their differences from the old vote counting machines of previous elections.
“First of all, our machine has become very fast to read – 200 millimeters per second compared to the previous 70 millimeters per second. Second, what’s good here compared with the old machines – PCOS and VCM when entering our ballot, we don’t know how our vote was counted except for the receipt. Here, there is a big screen where the voter, when he enters the ballot, he can see the image of the ballot itself and the summary of how his ballot was counted,” Laudiangco added.
Recently, some COMELEC officials led by Chairman George Erwin Garcia visited the Miru Systems plant, a South Korean company contracted to provide automated technology for the 2025 mid-term elections.
Miru showed the Philippine delegation its step-by-step process to produce machines that the Philippines will use in next year’s elections.
Meanwhile, the COMELEC official said that the registration of voters is still ongoing until September 30, Monday to Friday, from eight in the morning to five in the afternoon at the various offices of the Commission on Elections.
