By URIEL C. QUILINGUING
Contributing Editor
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday assured that the vote-counting machines (VCMs) and official ballots that would be used in Cagayan de Oro during the May 13 midterm elections are “intact and secured.”
City election officer Ramil Acol gave the assurance even as he disclosed to the Gold Star Daily that the machines will be delivered to the voting centers on May 9, and be subjected to final testing and resealing the day after.
The official ballots for Cagayan de Oro and the vote-counting machines were unloaded at Macabalan port.
Acol said the vote-counting machines for Northern Mindanao, including the 401 machines intended for the region’s capital city, are stored at the F2 Logistics hub in Barangay Puntod.
The vote-counting machines, he said, are secured round-the-clock by elements of National Police-created City Election Monitoring Action Center (Cemac).
The official ballots contained in 401 boxes which the Comelec main office shipped to Cagayan de Oro port were unloaded on Tuesday, and were delivered to the City Treasurer’s Office the next day, Acol said.
Meanwhile, Nestor Banuag Jr., chapter chairperson of the National Movement for Free and Honest Elections (Namfrel), said he witnessed the delivery of the 401 boxes of official ballots at city hall’s city treasurer’s office Wednesday afternoon.
With him, Banuag said, were representatives of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) and personnel of the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office.
He said the vote-counting machines are expected to be delivered to the city’s 401 clustered precincts on May 9 and will be subjected to final testing and resealing the following day.
Comelec’s Acol said Cagayan de Oro’s May 9 and 10 schedules in bringing the vote-counting machines to the voting centers and the final testing and resealing is the same with other cities and provinces in the region and elsewhere in the country.
Meanwhile, Col. Surki Sereñas, Camp Alagar spokesperson, said Cemac is the communication center of a police unit (city police) for all events concerning elections.
Sereñas said usually a Cemac operation officer heads it although the city director may appoint an action officer and members for an organization that has a parallels in the provincial and municipal levels.
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