PCOS lost its mystery, COMELEC XI chief says

DAVAO DEL NORTE, April 18 (PIA)  Commission on Elections (COMELEC)  regional director, Atty. Wilfred Jay Balisado  downplayed  possible  threats to the early delivery of Precinct Count Optical Scanner (PCOS) machine saying “PCOS has lost its mystery.”

In an interview, he said people are no longer as interested of PCOS as they were in the 2010 national elections.

 “Wala na kasi ang mystery ng PCOS na ‘yan. Unlike before when it was new; everyone was eager to see the PCOS,” Balisado  said.  

He viewed the PCOS as mere machine which can only run functionally to count ballots with the micro gadget inserted into it.

Balisado discounted any possibility of postponing the elections without the PCOS saying casting of votes can still go on even if the PCOS machine would be destroyed, stolen or be burned, because votes are written on the ballots which can be fed to other PCOS machines for counting.

He said that unlike the units of PCOS machine which are delivered days before the election, ballots are brought to polling precincts by the Board of Election Inspector (BEI) on the day of the election.

“If some lawless elements have orchestrated plans to destroy the PCOS, they might as well destroy the ballots to sabotage the election. It doesn’t serve if  they burn the PCOS because we can always have replacement,” Balisado said in explaining that PCOS can be reconfigured to do the counting of ballots fed from other precincts.

He assured the security in delivering PCOS units to towns and cities in close coordination with the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

“With regard to the distribution of PCOS, I left it to the sound judgment of the election officers in consultation with the PNP and the military which are non partisan. Deployment of the PCOS has prior approval of the military and the PNP,” Balisado said.

Once the PCOS units arrive at the municipal level, they would then be distributed within the same day, to clustered precincts and would then be placed for safekeeping preferably at the school principal’s office to be guarded by the PNP and the military.

Balisado said some 1,700 units of PCOS machine (of the 3,501 due for Davao Region) arrived in Davao City last Monday, kept safe at a warehouse of the Civil Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) in Davao City and in a warehouse in  Tagum City.

COMELEC Tagum City PCOS warehouse will cater to polling places in the provinces of Davao del Norte, Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental, while the CAAP warehouse keeps PCOS  units intended for Davao City, Davao del Sur  and parts of  Cotabato Province  particularly in Kidapawan and in Makilala,  he said. 

In a COMELEC command conference in Davao del Norte last Tuesday, COMELEC provincial election supervisor Atty. Ma. Febes Barlaan revealed  the PCOS distribution plan set on May 1 for the cities of Panabo and Samal, Carmen  and  Braulio E. Dujali; May 2,  for the municipalities of Sto. Tomas,  Kapalong,  New Corella,  Asuncion and San Isidro; and on May 3 for Tagum City areas.  (PIA XI/ Jeanevive Duron-Abangan)