Sen. Francis ‘’Chiz’’ Escudero, co-chairman of the Congressional Oversight Committee on Poll Automation, Thursday expressed apprehension over the capability of three freight forwarders to deliver the multi-million-peso Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines to the provinces in time for the country’s first automated elections on May 10, 2010.

Escudero said his pessimism was based on his receipt of documents on the capitalization of the three forwarders – Germalin Enterprises, Ace Logistics and Argo Forwarders.

Based on documents filed by the three companies with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), these firms have a capitalization of P3 million to P5 million each, he said.

These capitalizations are way too small in relation to the heavy responsibilities of these companies as given to them by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and Smarmatic, the winning bidder for the automated election process to be used in May, he claimed.

This meant that the government could hardly recoup a sizeable amount from these firms should they fail to deliver the PCOS machines or should they fail to meet the expectations of the Comelec and Smartmatic based on the terms of the contracts, he pointed out.