Persons with disabilities participate in a demonstration of the new voting machines from Miru that will be used for the first time in the 2025 elections during the Philippine Disability Convention and Expo at the SMX convention hall in Pasay City on July 16, 2024. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News

MANILA — Joint venture Miru has completed the manufacture of 110,620 Automated Counting Machines (ACMs) and peripherals to be used in the 2025 elections, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) reported Thursday.

• Comelec chief: Joint venture with Miru Systems will push through

In a press statement, the Comelec said the completion came “two months earlier than the deadline, which is December this year."

“The Commission on Elections and MIRU JV hurdled, well in advance, the final milestone of the Full Automation with Transparency Audit and Count (FASTrAC) project, with the completion of the manufacture of the 110,620 Automated Counting Machines (ACMs) and peripherals on 30 October 2024," the poll body said.

“The last unit of ACM to come out of the assembly lines at the MIRU production plant in South Korea was manufactured two months earlier than the deadline," it added.

The peripherals include external batteries, power cords, SD cards, thermal paper, smartcards for the Electoral Board, and others.

Comelec chairman George Garcia said the delivery of the last batch of ACMs from South Korea to the Philippines is expected to happen in November.

“Ang dapat nakalagay sa kontrata talaga ay last week ng December. Pero ang recent na balita na sa atin is second week of November na andito na," Garcia said.

“Approximately 10,000 plus units are now being trucked to Busan Port for loading onto Philippine-Bound Container/Cargo Ships... By November or a month ahead of the December Full Delivery schedule, we expect all 110,620 (ACMs) to be fully delivered to Comelec at the Biñan Warehouse,” Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco also said in a message to reporters.

According to Laudiangco, there are now 78,456 out of the expected 110,620 ACMs or 70.92 percent at the Biñan warehouse. Of these, 37,329 have passed the Hardware Acceptance Test (HAT) while 41,127 are being queued to be subjected to HAT.

• Miru Systems hands over printing machines to COMELEC

He said part of last batch of 32,164 are either at the Bureau of Customs for clearing, in transit via container ship, or are now being trucked for loading to the Busan port for shipping to the Philippines.

Earlier in September 18, the Comelec said, “one hundred percent” of the servers, printers and laptops that will be used for the consolidation and canvassing of votes at the municipal, city, and provincial levels were delivered, as well as the modems kr USB kits to be used for transmission of votes, as well as the headsets for use of persons of disability (PWD) voters.

Also completed on the same date were ballots which were used for the Hardware Acceptance Test (HAT) and the Laboratory Certification Test, as well as for  the ACM demonstration and roadshows nationwide set to begin next month.

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