With just a few days before election day, the integrity of the country’s first automated polls is put in question after mock elections conducted since Monday uncovered the failure of some precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines to count the actual votes cast.

With this development, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) to provide technical assistance to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in fixing the glitches.

Makati
In Makati City, the PCOS machines used in Pembo and Pitogo Elementary Schools during the mock polls only counted votes for mayoral candidates Erwin Genuino and Agapito Aquino while those of Councilor Jejomar Erwin “Jun-jun” Binay Jr. and Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado, both mayoral candidates, were not counted by the machines.

This prompted Mercado to urge the Comelec to hasten its investigation on why the PCOS machines assigned to Makati City failed to count the votes truthfully.

“We hope the Comelec can quickly explain why the PCOS machines failed to correctly read and tally the ballots in the mock polls. That is the only way the Comelec can block PCOS machines fail

They can’t read votes of certain candidates attempts to cast doubts on poll automation,” Mercado said.

Dr. Elita Lopez, election supervisor at Pembo Elementary School, added that PCOS count and manual count for the local candidates did not tally.

“All 31 PCOS machines failed to count votes for Binay and Mercado but votes for Genuino and Aquino were read,” said Lopez, expressing doubt over the credibility of the elections if the problem will not be resolved immediately.

The same scenario was experienced in Pitogo Elementary School.

“Whether it's the memory card or the paper of the ballot, we hope the Comelec can come up with an explanation so that voters will not be discouraged from casting their ballots next Monday,” Mercado said.

Mercado said that election results should have 100 percent integrity and that it could begin from securing “poll-worthiness” of PCOS by way of extensive full tests of the machines before the public.

Manila
In Manila, the camp of mayoral candidate Lito Atienza noted that PCOS machines failed to read votes for the position of mayor in at least 80 percent of the tests.

Ali Atienza, son and campaign manager of the former environment secretary, even claimed that PCOS machines in District 3 failed to read the votes for his father and candidates in the Buhayin ang Maynila team and were instead credited in favor of re-electionist Mayor Alfredo S. Lim.

The younger Atienza added the votes for mayor were not read at all in other districts.

With his development, the older Atienza called on the Comelec to allow parallel manual counting or revert to manual counting and postpone the automated polls.

Taguig
In Taguig, congressional candidate Angelito “Jett” Reyes claimed PCOS machines used in the mock elections failed to read his votes, raising fears these were tampered to favor certain candidates.

Reyes noted that in last Monday's testing and sealing of the automated equipment, only votes for incumbent Taguig Mayor Freddie Tinga, who is running for congressman, and his team were read by the machines, while votes cast for him and his brother, Marc, who is running for councilor, were not read. The problem was uncovered when the automated count did not match the parallel manual count.

Reyes cited tests done at Precinct No. 179 of the Diosdado Macapagal School at GHQ Village in Barangay Katuparan, where the PCOS machine credited him and Marc with zero votes, while the manual counting showed he got seven votes and Marc had six votes.

For Precincts 181, 1860, and 187, the Reyes brothers each received two votes per precinct on manual counting, but got zero in the PCOS tallies.

Pateros
In Pateros, incumbent Pateros Mayor Joey Medina, who is seeking another term, reported that half of the PCOS machines that were tested for the whole town printed incorrect results.

Incumbent District 2 Councilors Gerardo C. Sanchez, Jeric Reyes, and Edgar Castillo said their votes in the mock elections were affected.

Sanchez noted that during the tests, votes for president, vice president, senators, congressmen, mayors, vice mayors, and party-list representatives were correctly counted. However, those for councilor were counted incorrectly.

“Definitely this is a cause of concern (on our part) because we we’re the one directly hit by the problem. Some of the votes went to other candidates and vice versa. On my part, I failed to even get a single vote when the votes were tallied,” Sanchez said.

Enriqueta D. Danieles, Pateros acting election officer, assured Tuesday that everything is being done to fix the glitches that hit some of the PCOS machines.

“We received numerous complaints and these were already forwarded to officials of Smartmatic. We are waiting for feedback coming from them,” Danieles said.

Occidental Mindoro
In Occidental Mindoro, Gov. Josie Ramirez Sato and congressional candidate Benjamin Tria, both of Nacionalista Party-Nationalist People’s Coalition (NP-NPC) ticket, presented Tuesday proofs that the PCOS machines failed.

Sato showed evidence that both NP standard-bearer Manny Villar and LP candidate Benigno Aquino III got five votes each in manual counting but got zero in the automated counting. Worst, their total 10 votes went to Lakas-Kampi-CMD candidate Gilbert Teodoro in the PCOS counting.

Sato strongly suspects that a powerful and influential individual could be behind in this grand plan to cheat her and all opponents of the administration candidates not only in their province but in other parts of the country.

No PCOS for Davao City
Meanwhile, the Comelec has put on hold the delivery of ballots for Davao City for no clear reasons.

Senior Superintendent Rene Aspera, Davao City police chief, said the supposed delivery of PCOS machines to the third district here was stopped following the Comelec order.

“We were not given a specific reason, only to hold the delivery of the PCOS,” he said, who was supposed to lead the escorting team.

In Davao del Sur, Senior Supt. Ronaldo dela Rosa, provincial director, he ordered the pulling out of PCOS machines already delivered to Sta. Cruz following the order of the Comelec.

But Jolo, Sulu, distribution of PCOS machines have already started.

Meanwhile, Deputy Presidential Spokesman Rogelio Peyuan said CICT Chairman Ray Anthony Chua was assigned to meet with Comelec and Smartmatic Corp. to check the nature and scope of the problem, offer possible alternative solutions to the technical snag, as well as ensure adequate safeguards are in place to ensure the clean and credible elections next week.

Peyuan, in a news conference in the Palace, admitted that the President has expressed concern over the faulty memory cards of the poll machines during recent tests” because it involves the entire integrity of the exercise.” (Anna Liza T. Villas, Leonard D. Postrado, Francis T. Wakefield, Rolly T. Carandang, Sarah Jane R. Hilomen, Nonoy E. Lacson, and Genalyn Kabiling)