Reuse old VCMs, save P18B, lawmaker tells Comelec

A MEMBER of the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms yesterday urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to consider reusing the 97,000 vote-counting machines (VCMs) in next year’s midterm polls to save close to P18 billion.

“The VCMs had been verified to be in working condition, as after retrieval, each VCM was inspected individually and restored to perfect condition, as validated by the Comelec itself,” said Rizal Rep. Emigdio Tanjuatco III, adding that it is practical and wise for the Comelec to just reuse the VCMs that were bought from Smarmatic.

The lawmaker said the billions of pesos in savings “can bridge the budgetary gaps in essential services that the government is mandated to provide.”

Tanjuatco said he joined the call of his colleagues in light of the lingering concerns on the “unreliability” of the new hybrid voting and counting system contracted by the Comelec which, he said, “casts a shadow on the less-than-a-year of preparations for the national and local elections in May 2025.”

He was referring to the P17.9 billion automated vote-counting contract between the Comelec and controversial South Korean firm Miru Systems Co. Ltd.

“First and foremost, the P18 billion contract between the Comelec and Miru Systems Co. Ltd. does not comply with the terms of reference (TOR) of the automated election system (AES). I was present during the first demo of Miru’s machines in the Comelec, where I witnessed the deficiencies first hand,” he said.

Tanjuatco particularly questioned the integrity of vote-counting as he personally saw that Miru’s prototype machine read crumpled, marked and torn sample ballots during the demo in February.

He also opposed the “railroading of the contract signing despite mounting calls for the Comelec to first look into the controversies surrounding Miru’s bid, especially the South Korean firm’s submission of an unused prototype, a practice disallowed by the law.”

The Supreme Court earlier ruled that the poll body committed grave abuse of discretion when it disqualified Smartmatic-TIM from participating in the bidding for the 2025 Automated Election System (AES) contract.

However, the SC did not nullify the multi-billion