Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — Is it really too late to give the old Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines an upgrade?
Officials of companies Dermalog, Avante and Stone of David said: “No.”
The joint venture tried to convince Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Andres Bautista on Friday (August 14) that they can still refurbish the machines in time for the elections on May 9 next year.
The Comelec announced on Thursday that it will not use the 82,000 PCOS machines in 2016, and that they plan to lease 94,000 brand new machines, which the government will pay for roughly P8 billion.
PCOS machine supplier Smartmatic-TIM told the government before the 2013 elections that the machines Comelec purchased for P1.8 billion can last until 2016.
But as the 2016 elections approach with Comelec officials claiming refurbishing was needed, Smartmatic-TIM said it is not feasible anymore.
According to Smartmatic-TIM, refurbishing would have taken at least six months. But Dermalog Identification Systems said they can do it in four.
“If more devices are required, maybe refurbishment can still be done,” Dermalog’s Chief Executive Officer Gunther Mull said.
Dermalog clarified they are not questioning Comelec’s decision. They also admitted they just want an opportunity to do business.
Mull, however, told the media that “it is quite obvious” that “the vendor is trying to monopolize the elections.”
But Comelec said everything went through the process.
“Look at the record for the bidding for this one. And yet how many companies actually participated in any meaningful way? There were very few and those who did, well I guess you could say that sometimes their participation was very lackluster. They couldn’t even get to the point where they could show the technology,” Comelec Spokesman James Jimenez pointed out.
Dermalog was the only company that placed a bid to refurbish PCOS machines, but they were disqualified for failing to present sample ballots and Secure Digital (SD) cards.
They filed a motion for reconsideration, but Comelec denied it.
A waste of money
After the Comelec leases 94,000 new optical mark readers for the 2016 elections, it will leave 82,000 old PCOS machines stored in a warehouse unused.
And these old machines will only be useful when they are refurbished for 2019.
According to former Elections commissioner Gus Lagman, Comelec seemed too ready to trust Smartmatic.
“People within Comelec are part of the syndicate,” Lagman said.
But Lagman admitted he has no proof to back up his claim.
Lagman also said refurbishing the old PCOS machines for the 2019 polls is a big waste of money.
But Comelec readily defended its decision.
Jimenez said: “In the sense that some machines obviously will ultimately not be able take on the most recent upgrade, that still doesn’t qualify as obsolescence.”
Jimenez added that as far as the Comelec is concerned, machines kept in storage can still be used for elections after 2016.
“It seems like the machines that we have, if we keep them in storage now, and we maintain them properly immediately after the next elections, they will still be usable in 2019,” jimenez said.
The Comelec admitted it ran out of time to refurbish the PCOS machines for 2016.
But it insisted that it made the best decision to ensure that automated elections push through next year.
CNN Philippines’ JC Gotinga and Patricia De Leon contributed to this report.
