2 WEDNESDAY MAY 15,201"9
Lawmakers set to probe
g litches in cou nting mach ines
Lawmakers are set to inves-
tigate the glitches in the vote-
counting machines (VCMS) and
SD cards that marred the midterm
polls on Monday.
Sen. Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel,
chair of the joint congressional
oversiqht commitee on the auto-
mated elections system (ICOC-
AES) for the Senate/ yesterday
said he plans to call for an inquiry
on the disruptions of the voting
process yesterday due defective
VCMs.
"Glitches are enough to call for
a congressional investigation. Why
are we still having all these glitch-
es? Cannot Comelec (Commission
on Elections) anticipate them?" Pi-
mentel said in a text message.
Pimentel said he will coordinate
with JCOC-AES House panel chair,
CIBAC partylist Representative
Sherwin Tugna/ for the holding of
the congressional oveBight hear-
ing when sessions resume on May
20.
Senators have slammed the
Comelec over the malfunction of
the VCMS which caused delay in
the casting of votes in various polF
ing centers nationwide, and trig-
gered concerns that Voters may be
disenfranchiSed.
"Too many reports of malfunc-
tioning VCM5. nationwide. Hence
the question to as( now ig: Why
did comelec report that all VCMS
passed the diagnostic tests?" Pi-
mentel said on Monday.
Sen. Nancy Binay also said the
glitches were "totally unaccepbble"
since the Comelec had assured that
the polls will be in order.'
Sens. Joel Villanueva and Sher-
win Gatchalian also recalled allot-
ting the Comelec more than F10
billion in the 2019 national budget.
"This glitch is so weird...We have
the right to know what's really go-
ing on? #unbelievable," Villanueva
wrote on Twitter.
Yesterday, Senate President Vi-
cente Sotto III said the faulty ma-
chines shorild prompt the Comelec
to drop Smartmatic as its techonoF
ogy provider for the eledions.
"It's about time we stop using
Smaftmatic," Sotto said in a text
message.
Cornelec spokesman James
Jimenez had said that at least 400
VCMS encountered glitches during
the election day, way more than
the 188 faulty machines recorded
in the 2016 national elections.
The poll body has yet to deter-
mine the cause of the malfunction.
.But President Dutefte, after cast-
ing his vote in Davao City yester-
da, said it would be premature
to conduct any investigation as
he appealed to the publlc to allow
the Comelec to explain first on the
glitches.
"Let Comelec explain first to
the people before we even initi-
ate a sort of investigation...That
is in cognizance of our separation
of powers," he said. (Vanne Ter-
razola)
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