Comelec starts training personnel for the polls

CEBU, Philippines - The Commission on Election-7 kicked off yesterday the first of a number of trainings set for their personnel, Board of Election Inspectors and Precinct Count Optical Scan machine technicians in time for the upcoming May 2013 elections.

Having recently announced that they will hire PCOS technicians to address any possible PCOS machine glitches on the day of the election, Comelec yesterday gathered lawyers and civil technicians from Comelec offices within the region who will later assist in training BEIs and PCOS technicians.

Comelec Cebu Provincial Election Supervisor Eddie Aba explained that the first batch of training will be for the pool of trainers in the region who will be guiding BEIs.  The second batch will be for the technical personnel who will be training the PCOS technicians.

Aba said that for Cebu alone, they will be needing 3,000 PCOS technicians which they will be getting from the Department of Education.

He explained that they will be prioritizing IT-capable personnel from the Department of Education but if more are needed, they will get from the IT sector, most likely from schools offering IT courses.

Like the BEIs, Aba said that Comelec have set aside additional budget to hire PCOS technicians for the 2013 elections.

While the Comelec downplayed the possibility of the PCOS machines being rigged, the office said the technicians will be there to troubleshoot machines in case of problems in the receipt of ballots or the delay in the transmittal. 

Simultaneous nationwide field transmittal tests were done last month by Comelec where problems on the signal and PCOS machines were encountered in some areas.  But Comelec assured that this will be addressed accordingly.

Comelec-7 Regional Director Temie Lambino earlier said that while glitches may be experienced in the signal and other technicalities, there is no possibility that results and data would be changed using the PCOS. 

Meanwhile, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, the local chairman of United National Alliance party, has sent his response to Comelec letter regarding the UNA proclamation rally.

“I am not here to convince them. I have no intentions to convince Comelec that we are right. I am only there to answer their questions. They asked me a letter, I sent them one,” the mayor told reporters.

He then relayed what he wrote in the letter.

“I wrote to them that I received their letter. They asked to identify the venue which was Plaza Independencia. I told that I am supporting the event for a very obvious reason,” Rama said.

Rama said he had to tap the services of city government in taking care of the garbage, manning the traffic during the proclamation rally since it involved thousands of attendees.

“Alangan naman di nato alegrahon nga liboan man ang mitambong?  Mutabang man gani ta anang gamay rag mutambong,” he added.

Justifying the utilization of City Traffic Operations Management, he said what happened was better than the opposing Liberal Party’s sortie in Talisay City which caused heavy traffic.

As to the usage of city-owned buses to transport supporters, he said it was to “serve” the public.

“If there were usage of buses, I’m saying that it has to do with service,” he said.  (FREEMAN)