“Almost 100 percent successful.”
This was the assessment of Cebu Provincial Election Supervisor Eddie Aba of yesterday’s final testing and sealing (FTS) of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines in the province of Cebu and Cebu City.
It was not perfect though as six out of the 3,169 PCOS machines tested in Cebu province malfunctioned and would have to be replaced.
Bogo and Compostela each had a defective PCOS unit while the towns of Bantayan and San Fernando had each had two apiece.
Aba said the Comelec will immediately send replacements for the defective PCOS machines.
He said that despite the setbacks, the operations were still fairly successful as Alcoy, Aloguinsan, Asturias, Balamban, Barili, Boljoon, Carcar, Carmen, Catmon, Ginatilan, Lapu-Lapu, Medellin, Oslob, Moalboal, Pinamungahan, Poro, Ronda, Samboan, San Remigion , Santa Fe, Santander, Tabogon and Tabuelan already finished the FTS.
The other cities and municipalities are expected to complete their respective FTS tomorrow, Aba said.
In Talisay City, Efren Arnejo Jr., assistant election officer said that they encountered some minor mechanical problems on the PCOS machines, but these were fixed immediately.
In one of Cebu City’s biggest polling centers, the Guadalupe Elementary School where 22, 238 voters are set to cast their votes, the final testing and sealing started late due to the insufficient number of PCOS technicians for each polling precinct.
School principal Nestor Arandia said they instead had to alternate testing in every room.
He said the PCOS machines arrived around 9 a.m. However, it took them sometime to set up and distribute the units to the precincts.
Closed circuit television cameras that can rotate 360 degrees and can zoom up to 200 meters were installed around the school vicinity.
Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) chairman of GES precinct 336 Olivia Empales said the exercise yesterday was like a “refresher course” for BEIs who already served in the first nationwide automated polls in 2010.
She said they will set up an express lane for senior citizens, pregnant women and persons with disabilities.
Members of the media were also able to try the voting process using the PCOS machines.
At the Abellana National High School, Cebu Normal University and City Central School, final testing and sealing started around 11 a.m. as the Comelec prioritized the rural polling centers in the delivery of the PCOS machines./with Correspondent Gabriel C. Bonjoc and CNU Intern Allet Mary Teves