BAKUN, Benguet ? The automation of the May 10 elections has made voters curious and eager to try the technology but elders in remote communities here said they may opt not to vote at all.

The reason: Many of them, particularly the unschooled, said they were afraid to use the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machine, which they compared to a personal computer they never had the chance to use.

?Being illiterate, residents here might not go to the polls for fear they would lose track of how to use the election machine,? said Tyson Bacona, president of the Kayapa and Tacadang Responsible Youth Organization.

One machine

Bacona, 25, said assuring their elders that no computer keys would be pressed when they vote on May 10 has not helped since they have yet to see a PCOS machine.

Julius Torres, Cordillera director of the Commission on Elections, said the poll body had been forced to use only a single machine when it started community demonstrations of the PCOS last month.

?The Cordillera is supposed to get more machines so we can familiarize people about the PCOS but we have yet to receive them. I travel everywhere with one [PCOS] unit at my own expense,? Torres said.

Familiarity with the machines may not be the Comelec?s only problem, however.

A study being undertaken in the Cordillera by Katribu, a newly accredited party-list group, shows that problems may occur due to how precincts in mountain regions are clustered.

Torres said the country?s 342,075 precincts were clustered initially into 72,000 common voting areas to ensure that every voter has access to a PCOS machine.

He said Comelec wanted to maximize each of the 82,200 units to be supplied by government contractor, Smartmatic Corp.

Each PCOS machine can serve up to 1,000 voters in a day.

The decision to cluster the precincts was also made based on how efficient wireless networks work in these areas, Torres said, because the canvass tally must be transmitted online to Metro Manila on election day.

Katribu president Beverly Longid, however, said the method for clustering precincts ignores issues on territories that are often the cause of tribal conflicts.

Longid said some precincts in Kalinga and Mt. Province straddle communities of feuding clans.

Many of the proposed precinct clusters are also too far from communities, whose residents walk daily to reach schools or trading centers, Longid said.

The villages of Kayapa in Bakun town and Tacadang in Kibungan town, for example, are Benguet?s most remote villages, although they each host about 800 voters.

From the Bakun town hall in Ampusongan village, one would need a half-day hike to reach Kayapa.

?We understand that these are technical [prerequisites for installing and activating PCOS] but we also want to make sure they (indigenous peoples) also vote,? Longid said.

?It?s no joke walking to voting areas across mountains. You not only wear out your shoes, you are also tempted not to make that long trek if you feel you can?t vote anyway,? she said.

Longid said Katribu pursued the study as part of its own voter?s education campaign.

Their campaign includes a cardboard replica of the PCOS machine to help residents in upland villages familiarize themselves with the machine, she said.

?People who know what a fax machine looks like won?t [necessarily] know how to use it. It?s even worse for unschooled indigenous peoples who have no idea what the machine is,? Longid said.

Kibungan Mayor Benito Siadto said news about the machines? ?high-tech (high technology)? reputation have made Tacadang villagers uneasy because many fear their inability to read and write well would make them ineligible to vote.

Overtime

Bakun Mayor Marcelo Contada said the government must ?work overtime to ? dispel the wrong notions about the machines which they [still visualize as] computers.?

But because of time and financial constraints, Torres said the Comelec has asked local governments, civic groups and candidates to help introduce the PCOS to the provinces.

Governor Nestor Fongwan said he has asked the provincial board to approve a contingency fund for the purpose.

?Benguet has many remote villages. [Residents] might be surprised to find that machine in the polling centers,? he said. With a report from Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon