GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 6 Nov) – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is set to conduct a series of roadshows in Region 12 (Soccsksargen) to educate the public on the use of the newly acquired Automated Counting Machines (ACMs) in preparation for the May 2025 local and national midterm elections.
Atty. Jose Villanueva, Comelec Region 12 assistant director, during the Kapihan sa Bagong Pilipinas media forum hosted by PIA-12 on Tuesday (5 November 2024). Photo from PIA South Cotabato Facebook page
Lawyer Jose Villanueva, Comelec Region 12 assistant director, said they are currently waiting for the delivery of the ACMs that will be used in the voters’ education roadshows in the coming weeks in the region’s four provinces and four cities.
He said the Comelec central office is “in the process of sending the machines” contracted from South Korean firm Miru Systems Inc.
The public roadshows, which will begin once the ACMs arrive, were initially scheduled last October but deferred pending the arrival of the machines, he said.
“Every city and municipality will be given one ACM each that will be used to expose to people as to how the machine operates,” Villanueva said during the Kapihan sa Bagong Pilipinas media forum here hosted by PIA-12 on Tuesday.
He said the machines will be deployed for at least two months in malls, schools and other places accessible to the public.
Some 3,067 ACMs will be assigned in the region to cover all clustered precincts for the 2025 elections. At least 150 units or five percent of the total number will be on standby as backup.
Each of the 49 municipalities and cities in the region will also be deployed with one canvassing machine.
Comelec-12 will conduct another round of tests for the ACMs and the canvassing machine, especially on the transmission of votes via SpaceX’s Starlink internet services.
Villanueva said that based on the feedback they received from the initial tests conducted by the Comelec central office, the ACMs are reportedly “more accurate, fast and convenient” to use.
Data released by Comelec-12 showed that the number of registered voters in Region 12 for the May 12, 2025 elections has increased to 2,708,793.
Such figure is up by 102,301, or almost 4%, from the 2,606,492 eligible voters in the 2022 local and national elections.
Villanueva said they have validated the voter’s list through the automated fingerprint identification system, which detects double or multiple registrations using biometric data.
For the 2025 polls, he said among the changes that they will adopt is the conduct of early voting from 5 to 7 a.m. for persons with disabilities (PWDs), senior citizens and pregnant women.
He added that special precincts will be opened in selected areas for indigenous peoples or IP voters, and special lanes will be provided for PWDs, senior citizens and pregnant women at the precincts during the regular voting. (Allen V. Estabillo / MindaNews)
