MANILA — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will destroy on May 7 over half a million "defective and roadshow" ballots at a public event at the National Printing Office (NPO).

Roadshow ballots are those that were used in the public demonstration of vote counting machines all over the country.

"Destruction of defective ballots is May 7, it will be an event, it will be shown to the public, media, as well as political parties," Comelec commissioner Marlon Casquejo said Thursday.

Meanwhile, Casquejo said they already approved the establishment of regional tech hubs to cater to the replacement of defective SD cards and the repair of defective vote counting machines (VCM).

"We all know we only have 1,100 contingency machines during elections kapag may defective VCM we have to replace it using our contingency machines even in our overseas voting."

Comelec has 8 regional VCM repair hubs while there are 83 hubs for the replacement SD cards.

Meanwhile, Comelec Commissioner Aimee Ferolino, head of the Packing and Shipping Committee, said they have dispatched 100 percent of overseas ballots, 48.04 percent of local official ballots, 96.44 percent of VCMs, 99.54 percent of VCM external batteries, 100 percent of ballot boxes, 100 percent of transmission devices, 99.01 percent of consolidation and canvassing system laptops, and 99.07% percent of non-accountable forms and supplies warehouse.

The country is set to hold its national and local elections on May 9.