MANILA, Philippines — The last batch of automated counting machines (ACMs) for the May 2025 midterm elections is arriving in the country soon, according to the Commission on Elections.
Comelec Chairman George Garcia on Wednesday said that the last batch of ACMs is on its way to Busan Port in South Korea for delivery to the Philippines.
Garcia said Miru Systems assured the poll body that it would be able to complete the delivery of the 110,000 ACMs this month.
He noted that 80,000 ACMS have been delivered and are now undergoing the mandatory test as well as the hardware acceptance test.
Meanwhile, the Comelec has formally accepted the new Net Financial Contracting Capacity (NFCC) of the local partners of the joint venture contracted to supply the automated election system (AES) for the midterm polls.
In a resolution, the Commelec said the NFCC submitted by Miru Systems and its local partners, Integrated Computer Systems (ICS) and Centerpoint Solutions Technologies Inc. (CPSTI), is “sufficient and in order.”
The Comelec noted that the new NFCC’s amount of P19,253,817,256.42 is more than the project’s contract price of P17,988,878,226.55.
After a thorough assessment, the Comelec’s Law Department and Project Management Office recommended that the commission consider the new NFCC submitted by the joint venture.
St. Timothy’s Construction Company (STCC), one of the local partners that provided the NFCC for the AES project, previously withdrew from the Miru-led joint venture.
This prompted the Comelec to require the remaining members of the joint venture to submit a replacement NFCC.
Garcia said they are still looking into the possible liability of STCC officials after their withdrawal from the joint venture.
“We are following up with our legal department on the criminal, civil and administrative liability study due to the withdrawal of one of the joint venture partners,” Garcia said.
The Comelec has posted on its website the certificates of candidacy of the 66 aspirants for the senatorial race.
Garcia said information such as address and contact number of the senatorial candidates were removed from the document uploaded online.