By Merlina Hernando-Malipot After reporting hundreds of malfunctioning vote counting machines (VCMs), teachers’ groups on Tuesday expressed disappointment with the overall conduct of the 2019 national elections and urged the authorities to “investigate” to ensure that those responsible will be held liable. "Ikinalulungkot namin ang malawakang pagkasira ng VCMs sa naganap na Halalan," said Teachers' Dignity Coalition (TDC) in a statement. TDC Secretary General Emmalyn Policarpio said that these kinds of technical glitches put into compromise not only integrity of the elections but the welfare of the teachers who serve as the Electoral Board (EB) as well. "Ang ganitong technical glitches ay naglagay sa mga kasapi ng electoral board sa alanganing sitwasyon, sila ang napagbuntunan ng galit ng mga botante samantala wala naman silang kasalanan," Policarpio said. More than the inconvenience it has brought, TDC said that the glitches are very alarming because these reflect the lack of preparation by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC). "Ang mas nakababahala ay ang tila kawalang-kahandaan ng Comelec sa ganitong sitwasyon," Policarpio said. Given this, the TDC is calling for a probe to find out what or who caused the problems. "Hinihiling namin na magkaroon ng imbestigasyon dito at papanagutin ang sinumang may pagkukulang o kapabayaan," the group said. The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), meanwhile, lambasted the COMELEC for spending billions of people’s money on the VCMs only for these to “malfunction” on election day. “We worry at the possible repercussions of these issues—disenfranchisement, further harassment of our hardworking teachers, and worst, the jeopardizing of the integrity of the 2019 elections,” said ACT National Chairperson Joselyn Martinez. Own monitoring To observe the conduct of the midterm elections and assist their fellow teachers who volunteered to serve the polls, teachers groups set up their own monitoring systems. The teacher's groups set up their respective hotlines to monitor election-related issues and concerns and identified “technical problems” – particularly VCMs – as among the major issues members of the EB have to face during the conduct of the 2019 midterm elections. ACT and the TDC, in separate statements, confirmed that technical problems were among the major concerns experienced by the EB. ACT said that malfunctioning of VCMs as well as of the Voter Registration Verification Machines (VRVMs) is among the “major” issues encountered by EB and other DepEd personnel on the ground. The teachers’ group says that electoral board members “bear the brunt” of voters’ “irk and even anger” due to the resulting delay in the voting process. “We received reports from teacher-poll workers that voters are yelling at them due to the hours of delay in voting,” said Martinez. “They are getting the blame for the malfunctioning machines, which even COMELEC’s technical teams can’t resolve,” she added. Martinez, who is at the frontline of ACT’s election hotline, said that they are “continuously receiving reports from the ground regarding VCMs that are unable to read ballots, not turning on, restarting repeatedly, ballots getting paper-jammed, among others.” The VRVMs, on the other hand, had “issues with the biometrics feature not working and the name of registered voters not appearing on the digital list” – resulting to many polling precincts foregoing the VRVM and having teachers manually search for voters’ names on the printed list. Martinez said that some voters tend to become "suspicious when the electoral board decides to go on with the voting and collect the filled ballots which will be fed to the machines when the problem is resolved.” She noted that this is part of the standard operating procedure but "we cannot blame the irked voters as we understand their vigilance and desire to ensure that their votes were counted accurately.” Based on ACT’s monitoring malfunctioning VCMs were reported from Quezon City (Emilio Aguinaldo Elementary School, Roces ES, Brgy. Maharlika Placido del Mundo ES); Caloocan (Maypajo ES, Maypajo ES, Cielito ES and Silangan ES); Manila (Legarda ES, Mabolo ES, Sto. Niño ES, Lumban); Pangasinan (Brgy. Libsong, West Lingayen); Tarlac (San Miguel); Aurora (Ruperto Zubia ES, Baler); Bulacan (Brgy. Bagong Buhay, San Jose del Monte); Legazpi City (Ibalon ES); Bataan (Ala Uli ES, Pilar); Marikina (St. Mary’s ES, Brgy. Langka); and Cavite (Niyog ES, Kalsadang Bago, Imus). Malfunctioning VRVMs are likewise reported in Quezon City (Judge Juan Luna HS Quezon City); Manila (T. Paez Integrated School); Caloocan City (East Bagong Barrio ES, Silangan ES) and Cebu City (Mabolo ES). The other issues ACT documented through its election hotline include vote-buying, illegal campaigning, bleeding markers/pens, insufficient pens supplied per precinct, lack of Emergency Accessible Polling Places, and unbearable and disorderly long lines due to lack of COMELEC assistance centers/desks and changes in the clustered precincts. Meanwhile, the TDC command post – in partnership with LENTE – has received reports from the field which mostly were about non-working VCMs. “In many reported cases, voters just left the polling places because of dismay after queuing for hours and not be able to vote,” Policarpio said. “The matter also affects the teachers, because voters would normally blame them for every technical glitch that may happen,” she ended. As reported by COMELEC Spokesperson James Jimenez, 400 to 600 out of the 85,000 VCMs in precincts nationwide encountered glitches.