The Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced on Thursday, Feb. 16 that it has approved of pilot testing of the Automated Elections System (AES) in three barangays for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) in October.
According to Comelec spokesperson Atty. John Rex Laudiangco, this was part of the regular en banc meeting held on Feb. 15 (Wednesday).
In a document, Laudiangco shared that the pilot testing of the AES will be conducted in two barangays in Cavite which are Barangay Zone II Poblacion and Barangay Paliparan III in Dasmariñas City. The third barangay is Barangay Pasong Tamo in the sixth District of Quezon City.
"In view of this limited pilot testing of the AES in the BSKE in the specified barangays in Dasmariñas City and Quezon City, the filing of COCs will be earlier in view of the need to print the names of the candidates in the machine-readable official ballots," Laudiangco said.
"The election period shall remain the same, with the exception of the said period of filing of COCs in the pilot tested barangays as well as the other periods (deployment, FTS, etc.) inherent to the implementation of an automated elections system," he added.
In response to the barangays that were chosen, Laudiangco stated that it was the direct outcome of last Tuesday’s regular hearing of the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms.
He clarified, however, that the choice of the barangays was not necessarily from the house committee itself but from the mutual consultation and mutual agreement between it and Comelec.
He also explained that the results of the pilot testing will then be tested and pointed out that for that purpose, the three barangays that were picked were small, medium, and large-sized.
Last month, it can be recalled that Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia said that the poll body will be studying if they can at least pilot test in certain areas or precincts the automation of the BSKE. He said that the thought of automating the BSKE is an "innovative idea" although Laudiangco mentioned that a huge financial aspect is involved when it comes to automation.
In the same month, Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga, Jr. has urged the House of Representatives to study the possibility of automating the October 30 BSKE, saying it will not only yield faster results and proclamation of winners but also "prevent human intervention or error and confusion in the appreciation of ballot on an experimental basis on the BSK Elections in large barangays preferably in Metro Manila."
However, Garcia stated fully automating is unlikely at this point.
"We are halfway the printing of ballots for the conduct of manual elections," he said.
Comelec said that Official Ballots (OBs) printed for the postponed and re-scheduled December 5, 2022, BSKE had been duly authorized for use on October 30. According to Comelec's data, it has printed 16,027,280 Barangay OBs and 5,958,931 SK OBs.