Brillantes: No foul ups expected in testing of PCOS

Commission on Elections Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Commission on Elections does not expect any major foul-up in the final testing and sealing (FTS) of the precinct count optical scan machines which begins Thursday, Comelec chief Sixto Brillantes Jr. said Wednesday.

Brillantes said there would be no repeat of the major glitch discovered during the FTS for the 2010 presidential elections which resulted in the recall of 76,000 compact flash (CF) cards that were to be used by PCOS machines.

“That will not happen again … If anything happens, it will only be isolated cases of CF cards being defective, then we can easily remedy it,” Brillantes said in an interview.

“If we were able to replace all the 76,000 in 2010 in less than a week, we should be able to solve isolated problems of CF cards,” he added.

Brillantes said the FTS across the country would start with all the precincts of the first congressional district of Pasay City while the others would conduct theirs on May 6.

“It was supposed to be May 6 but some areas asked that they be allowed to conduct tests after the (PCOS) arrived and the (Board of Election Inspectors) are ready,” he said.

Brillantes said the FTS would include tests if the PCOS machine would accept ballots, count votes correctly, and if it would be able to transmit the results.

After the testing, the PCOS machine would be housed either in the school or in an area designated by the school supervisor or principal.

“They have to make sure it is under guard and we’re informing our citizens arms to be ready when it’s sealed,” Brillantes said.