Comelec chief Garcia favors leasing counting machines for future polls

The Commission on Elections should lease new vote counting machines for the conduct of the 2025 polls and beyond to prevent incidents of malfunctioning VCMs in the future, Comelec chairman George Garcia said Wednesday.

Garcia made the position during the Commission on Appointments' deliberation on his nomination as poll body chairperson, saying that the 90,000 VCMs in Comelec warehouses are not highly-functional anymore.

"Hindi po natin kailangan bumili kasi technology changes every six months. Ang pinaka effective ay mag lease ng machines. Why? One, 'di mo na kailangan ng warehouse at i-maintain, mas mura. [At] 'pag lease, sisiguraduhin ng nagpapaupa na bago ang makina," Garcia stressed.

(We don't need to buy since technology changes every six months. The most effective way to address this is to lease VCMs. You won't need a warehouse for maintenance, and you can be sure that the machines that will be leased to you are brand new.)

Garcia said that using the 90,000 VCMs, which have been used for three elections, for future polls will only repeat incidents of malfunctioning VCMs during the 2022 elections which resulted in packed voting centers amid the COVID-19 pandemic, if not disenfranchised voters.

"We believe, based on technical specifications, that if we are going to use these for the 2025 elections...iyong pinupukpok, nilalagyan ng electric fan para lumamig, iyong pahihintuin muna, iyong ia-adjust kasi 'di na kumakasya ang balota...these will all happen again in 2025," Garcia said.

(Those VCMs that you had to strike at, place an electric fan to cool down...VCMs that you need to shut down for a while, adjustments for ballots since the machine is not reading it anymore...these will all happen again in 2025.)

"We cannot go back to manual elections. It should be computerized elections because it is not only about the speed, but the credibility of the results," Garcia said.

Garcia, however, said that the poll body will still be guided by the feedback from the lawmakers from the House of Representatives and the Senate. — RSJ, GMA News