DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines – The simultaneous and final testing and sealing of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines to be used in Negros Oriental for the May 13 elections will be held tomorrow (May 8) as earlier scheduled.
The final testing and sealing of these automated machines will be “centralized†instead of being done at the voting precincts level, excluding the capital city of Dumaguete where the PCOS machines will be deployed to the different voting precincts for the same activity on Wednesday, according to acting city election officer, Atty. Jerome Brillantes.
Atty. Brillantes said that following the delivery of the PCOS machines to their intended destinations on Tuesday, these will be in the custody of the election officers until they are deployed to the voting precincts as early as May 12, a day before next Monday’s polls.
In Dumaguete, the delivery and final testing and sealing will be held Wednesday at 17 polling places with a total of 92 clustered precincts or the equivalent of the total number of PCOS machines allocated for this capital city, said Brillantes.
Meanwhile, Atty. Brillantes said no contingency PCOS machines have arrived yet for Negros Oriental.
In fact, he also does not have a clue as to how many reserved units will be allocated for Dumaguete.
But, the election officer said that if all of the PCOS machines deployed for Dumaguete will all be functional, then he is not worried about not having a contingency PCOS unit. (FREEMAN)