MANILA --- Almost all vote counting machines in the country were ready for use at the start of election day, May 9, the Commission on Elections said Monday.

Acting Commission on Elections Spokesperson Director John Rex Laudiangco told media in a 5 a.m. press briefing that 99.95% of VCMs were ready before the polls opened on May 9.

Laudiangco said 47 precincts in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and 1 each in Socorro, Oriental Mindoro and Silvino Lobos, Northern Samar have yet to submit their final testing and sealing (FTS) results.

The FTS is a requirement of the poll automation law before polls open. In Socorro, Oriental Mindoro and Silvino Lobos, Northern Samar, the FTS could not proceed because there were no test ballots so they were allowed to use 3 official ballots instead

Elsewhere, the VCMs are 100 percent ready, with all ballots deployed and in the hands of electoral boards.

In Cotabato City, some electoral boards had to be replaced by PNP personnel trained to do poll duty after the regular election boards refused to serve out of fear.

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Laudiangco confirmed they could be arrested later on but they will settle accountabilities later as they are prioritizing the start of voting.

Also in Cotabato City, 1 VCM would not work and had to be serviced for repair.

If the VCM cannot be repaired or replaced in time for the opening of polls, voting will still start as scheduled, but the voters won’t be able to feed them into the machine themselves as these will instead be gathered by the electoral boards for batch feeding in the presence of watchers.