Automated counting machines arrive in Iligan City hub
ILIGAN CITY—Five trucks loaded with automated counting machines (ACMs), automated election system and other election paraphernalia intended for the provinces of Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur and Misamis Occidental arrived at a hub owned by F2 Logistics in Pala-o here on April 9, officials said.
Police Maj. Zandrex Panolong, spokesperson of the Iligan City Police Office, said the cargoes, which passed through Philippine Ports Authority in Cagayan de Oro City before these were transported here, had been heavily secured by the police until they would reach their destinations in the barangays and polling precincts.
Lawyer Joseph Hamilton M. Cuevas, provincial election supervisor in Lanao del Norte, said the Commission on Elections (Comelec) would conduct the final testing and sealing of the ACMs in the respective provinces towards the third week of April before these, along with other election paraphernalia, would be dispatched to the municipalities and barangays of the three provinces.
Cuevas said the schedule of the final testing still has to be finalized and would be announced by the respective provincial election office later.
Transported
Earlier in Davao City, the Comelec dispatched 340 Starlink kits, composed of satellite devices and solar panels, to be used in the May 12 polls to different offices of election officers in the Davao region after their discovery inside an unsecured house in Buhangin district of the city created a stir.
Comelec, however, allayed fears of any irregularities as the transmission devices and solar panels being kept by the Comelec service provider iOne Resources Joint Venture with Ardent Networks (iOneJV) were merely for the transmission of the election results and did not have anything to do with the counting of votes.
On April 6, the election devices were loaded on several wing vans secured by the police as these were ordered to be transported to the different election offices in the Davao region.
Of the 340 Starlink kits dispatched to different parts of the region, 88 went to Davao Occidental; 77 went to Davao del Sur, including the 35 in Digos City; 64 to Davao Oriental; 56 to Davao del Norte; 38 to Davao de Oro; and 37 to Davao City.
