Liga ng mga Barangay asks SC to allow public testing of ACMs

The 1.5 million Liga ng mga Barangay (LB) has joined calls for the Supreme Court to allow public testing of the much disputed automated counting machines (ACMs) to determine their accuracy and reliability for eventual use in next year’s elections.

Public testing of 1,991 ACMs is a giant step towards the ultimate goal of automation to spare the country from perennial election counting disputes, LB president and Marinduque board member James Marty Lim said.

Lim noted that the ACMs in the center of the controversy were accurate as ascertained by the Department of Science and Technology.

The Comelec purchased the ACMs from the Mega Pacific Consortium in 2003 for the national elections in 2004.

This contract was declared null and void by the Supreme Court because of irregularities in the bidding process and the alleged technical deficiencies of the machines.

On the other hand, Lim cited three reasons to push for poll automation.

"One, it will speed up the election process thus eliminating doubts and accusations. Two, it will bring about huge savings on time and manpower thereby minimizing tasks requiring human intervention which will spare us of unnecessary costs," said Lim in a statement.

Third, he said, it is bound to decrease election-related offenses by lessening the risk brought about by the length of time it takes before the results are released.

"Automation indeed will solve major dilemma caused by manual canvassing," Lim noted.

Lawyer Romulo Macalintal earlier asked the SC to allow the use of the ACMs for the 2007 elections.

"With new witnesses surfacing recently to testify against election cheating in the last elections, the country faces another round of exasperating tirades from both opposition and administration unless something concrete is implemented soon such as automating succeeding election to accelerate release of results," said Lim.

Malacañang has backed the Comelec’s position to use the 1,991 idle ACMs in the 2007 elections which opposition Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. has criticized.

Pimentel said such moves were irresponsible on Malacañang’s part, considering that the SC already ordered the Comelec to return the ACMs to Mega Pacific and tasked the Office of the Solicitor General with recovering the money paid for the equipment.

Lim, who has been LB head for nine years, said he has seen how other public servants toil and imperil themselves during elections. "It cannot be denied that a big chunk of election-related work is tasked upon barangay officials and the longer it takes for the results to be generated, the greater their exposure to danger."

"The counting machines which cost billions may soon be facing oblivion and deterioration unless the SC acts favorably on a petition filed recently to reopen the case concerning the purchase of ACMs," Lim said in a statement. — Cecille Suerte Felipe