Despite the numerous reports that surfaced on social media during election day on May 9 regarding malfunctioning Vote Counting Machines (VCMs), the Commission on Elections (Comelec) maintained that no voter disenfranchisement occurred.
In a press briefing on Tuesday, May 10, Comelec Acting Spokesperson John Rex C. Laudiangco said that they did not even need to extend the voting hours since they "delivered their commitment" since those who lined up at 7 p.m. they were allowed to vote no matter how long it took.
"Wala pong na disenfranchise despite the isolated issues on the VCMs and the SD card (There was no disenfranchisement despite the isolated issues on VCMs and SD cards)," he added.
He mentioned that all the lessons learned during the conduct of the May 2022 elections will be taken into the consideration of the poll body to make sure that the next elections in 2025 will be better.
On the other hand, Commissioner Marlon Casquejo stated that the malfunctioning VCMs that were encountered on election day were not significant as compared to 2019, stating that over 5,000 machines had problems during that time.
For this election, he said that 915 machines encountered problems. He added that it will be computed and multiplied for example to at least 500 registered voters, it's significantly smaller than the 64 million plus registered voters.
"Alam natin yung makina, meron talagang glitch yan. There's no such thing as perfect system. Lalo na kapag makina. Even your cellphone bigla na lang naghang iPhone 'yun or any high-end cellphone (We all know that machines have glitches. There's no such thing as perfect system. Especially machines. Even cellphones like iPhones or any high-end cellphone might freeze)," he said.
"May mga ganun talaga and as to this, 106,000 ito, so out of that 106,000 only 900 plus 'yung pumalpak, not necessarily pumalpak but may reason din (Things as such as those really happen and out of 106,000 only 900 malfunctioned and there's a reason behind it)," he added.
What's important, he explained, is that the said glitches do not affect election results. Casquejo stated that this may be the last time that the said VCMs will be used and for the next elections in 2025, they may ask the Congress to lease out new VCMs or any machine or technology that is allowed that can do the job.