Comelec says 22 VCMs malfunctioned in Eastern Visayas

TACLOBAN CITY – Only 22 of the 6,271 vote counting machines (VCM) have malfunctioned in Eastern Visayas during the voting on Monday, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said in its initial report.

Of the 22 VCMs, six were deployed in Tacloban City; four in Ormoc City; two each in Jaro, Dagami, and Carigara; and one each in Sta. Fe, Kananga, Burauen, Bato, Barugo, and Albuera towns, all in Leyte province.

“This is better since during the final testing and sealing, there were 31 VCMs and six SD cards that malfunctioned. Today, we did not encounter any problem with SD cards,” said Comelec Eastern Visayas information officer Jenette Ruedas.

All malfunctioned machines have been fixed immediately by technical staff trained for VCM troubleshooting.

Among those that malfunctioned are the two counting machines deployed at the Kapangian Central School in downtown Tacloban City.

Nita Jongco, the Department of Education supervising election officer in Kapangian, said they immediately informed the Comelec regional office, and voters were given two choices on what to do after experiencing the problem.

“One portion is to wait for the replacement VCM and they personally feed the ballot to the machine. Another option is to leave it in the precinct and allow the members of electoral board to scan the ballot,” Jongco said.

Among the affected voters due to VCM malfunction was Vice Mayor Jerry Yaokasin, who is running against incumbent Mayor Alfred Romualdez.

They waited for a few minutes before they were able to cast their vote.

"Votes must be counted, whatever it is, with the glitches and the things that we need to go to we have to understand the process that is why voting is until 7 p.m.," Yaokasin said.

The Comelec regional office has yet to receive reports of malfunctioned VCMs in the other five provinces in Eastern Visayas. (PNA)