ACM repair hubs available in 110 areas across the country - Comelec chief

For the first time, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Erwin Garcia said on Thursday, Feb. 13 that there are repair hubs in 110 areas across the country that will serve as a contingency measure during the May 2025 polls.

"For the first time, meron tayong repair hubs sa 110 areas sa buong bansa. Mayroon tayong repair hubs sa 82 provinces nationwide at yung iba doon sa highly-urbanized cities kahit dito sa Metro Manila (For the first time, we have repair hubs in 110 areas across the entire country. We have repair hubs in 82 provinces nationwide, and some are located in highly urbanized cities, including here in Metro Manila)," he said in a press conference in Quezon City.

According to Garcia, this means that when an Automated Counting Machine (ACM) encounters a problem, there will no longer be a need for it to be brought to Comelec's warehouse in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.

He explained that in this scenario, the local election officer would immediately deploy a contingency ACM while the malfunctioning machine will be brought to the repair hub, which would eliminate the disruption in the voting process in a particular precinct.

"Ginawan ng paraan ng Comelec 110,000 tayo na machines; 94,000 more or less lang ang ating presinto. At dahil dun mayroon kaming sobra-sobra na makina na pwede namin gamitin na as contingency machines (The Comelec prepared 110,000 machines; we have about 94,000 precincts. Because of this, we have extra machines that we can use as contingency machines)," he said.

"Para kahit papaano may naka-standby na na makina na pupwedeng ipampalit kung sakaling magkaproblema sa makina (So that there is a backup machine ready to replace it in case there is a problem with the current machine)," he added.

Garcia also disclosed that based on the report of the Project Management Office in charge with the mock elections they have not received any report of a malfunctioning machine from the demos conducted from Dec. 3 to January 30.

Meanwhile, he also announced that after the final testing and sealing, the machines' count will be reverted to zero.

"May paraan, alam ng mga electoral board members, na i-rerezero siya para pag binuksan sa araw ng eleksyon walang makikitang laman yung USB. Zero siya (There is a way, known to the electoral board members, to reset it to zero so that when it's opened on election day, the USB will appear empty. It will be zeroed out)," Garcia said.

This will be done, according to the Comelec chief, since in the past elections, poll watchers have questioned ACMs that already contain votes but were actually used in the final testing and sealing.