Court to use ultraviolet scanner in lieu of PCOS

CEBU, Philippines - The Regional Trial Court handling the election protest filed by defeated mayoralty candidate Doroteo Salazar against Madridejos Mayor Salvador dela Fuente is asking the authority of the Commission on Elections to use an ultraviolet ray code detection mechanism in lieu of a Precinct Count Optical Machine for the authentication of the protested ballots.

RTC Branch 61 assisting Judge Olegario Sarmiento Jr. said that since there is no PCOS machine available for the recount, the Comelec should allow an alternative mechanism to authenticate the ballots in order for the court to dispose of the protest.

Sarmiento said that the election protest has been pending for almost a year already because of the unavailability of the PCOS machine. The Comelec has no PCOS machine because it only rented from Smartmatic-TIM during the May 2010 elections.

The machines that were used in the last elections were already returned to Smartmatic.

Salazar earlier filed the election protest against dela Fuente for alleged irregularities in 30 clustered precincts in Madridejos. Salazar claimed that one PCOS machine showed 40 persons voted before it bogged down. When the machine was repaired, it showed that 100 voters had cast their votes.

Dela Fuente was proclaimed winner with 8,607 votes while Salazar only had 6,132 votes. (FREEMAN)