Minor glitches in the field tests of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines are expected, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said Friday.

Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said the “minor glitches” are already expected, especially since they are still on the testing aspect of the automated elections system project.
“It’s a challenge that we encountered. Now, nakita na namin and it will help us prepare in the elections,” he said.

Comelec Spokesman James Jimenez, for his part, said they are happy that the field tests are serving their real purposes.

“The purpose of these tests is precisely to shake down the entire system so to make sure that everything that can go wrong goes wrong now so that we can fix it,” Jimenez said.

“Definitely there will be people who will capitalize on this and say that ‘this will fail’ but that would be very unfair. The important thing is that we have shown that the system works,” he added.

On Friday, all four sites of the PCOS field tests – namely Pateros Elementary School and Aguho Elementary School in Pateros and in Maharlika Elementary School and Taguig Elementary School in Taguig – suffered failure to transmit the data while using mobile subscriber identity module (SIM) cards.

But Comelec-National Capital Region (NCR) Director Michael Dioneda said that aside from the precinct in Aguho Elementary School, the three other sites were able to successfully transmit the data after trying two other SIM cards.

“We encountered problems in terms of signal but eventually all were transmitted accurately,” Dioneda said.

Aside from problems of transmission, the PCOS machine detailed at the Aguho Elementary School also failed to read four out of the 10 pre-marked ballots.