Surely, automated elections created a buzz not only to the government but also to the various leagues and organizations in the Philippines. Well, the poll was successful after issues and revelations were brought up. However, if you will look back on the past automated poll case, you will see how everyone in the right position gave their personal and practical comments about it. Government entities already raised their questions, senators and other officials had an argument about which side of decision is better and the machine provider was even tagged with a lot of issues. Even the League of Provinces did not escape from the Comelec’s urges to bring forth issues regarding the new system in election.
At first, Commissioner Rene Sarmiento explained the governors about how the poll automation program system will work. It was also cleared that the poll automation program will be going through acid tests . Some provincial governors expressed their support by suggesting ideas on how to implement automated elections in provinces. Mock elections were suggested, as well as field testing and road shows.
Although automated poll program gave a glint of hope for people who are rooting for a clean election, many still opposed with the idea. The ones who went against the flow were the officials who are more concerned with the budget. Just purchasing polling machines for every precinct made the government spend a lot of millions. For some, it’s impractical since these machines will just be used once every six year, so why bother spending much? The appeal was even made stronger when various issues like technical errors and memory card issues were brought up.
There are also some governors who strengthen the appeal like Davao del Sur Governor Dodo Cagas who explained that problems during the election might occur. Illiterate voters might have confusions in casting their votes and this can slow down the process of election even if there are election assistants. Questions were also posed by Leyte Governor Carlos Jericho Petilla in line with some issues regarding the technologies that the Comelec will use.
Other queries were also brought up like the concern about the process of capturing of the voter’s biometric data. Bataan Governor Tet Garcia then suggested if there’s something that provinces can do to help in implementing the automated elections. His specific suggestion was to let the provinces assist in purchasing the computers that will be used in capturing biometrics. Sarmiento, on the other hand, cleared that there is no need of the provinces’ help because the Congress already has funds for the project.
Automated election was proposed, conflicts were raised, decision was finalized, elections took place, voters casted their votes through these too-toot machine and a president won. Long and short of this, the saying “Kay haba-haba man ng prusisyon, sa simbahan pa rin ang tuloy.” took effect. Today, the league of provinces and other government entities’ focus is not about these machines but on how to make the country better than it has always been.