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Comelec to send automated counting machines to IP communities, jails for 2025 polls

Article (news)

Sherrie Ann Torres

ABS-CBN News

<p style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal">MANILA — Indigenous peoples (IPs) and persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) will also be given the chance to vote in next year’s elections using the automated counting machines (ACM), Commission on Elections Chairman George Erwin Garcia said Monday.</p><div style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal"> </div><p style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal">Interviewed on the sidelines of the PDLikha (Pag-asa dala ng paglikha) event — an exhibit of art from six jail facilities in the country — Garcia said that they are looking at assigning ACMs to IP communities and to jail facilities with at least 50 voters, so everyone will get to experience automated voting.</p><div style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal"> </div><p style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal">“Susubukan natin ngayon dahil may sobra naman tayo sa marerentahan natin... Dahil  yung iba naman naka-standby lang kung sakaling magka-aberya yung makina, baka pupuwede na nating magamit sa PDLs natin,” Garcia said.</p><div style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal"> </div><p style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal">(Since we have excess leased ACMs, on standby, we are looking at giving PDLs access to these machines)</p><div style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal"> </div><p style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal">Still, Garcia admitted that voter education initiatives for PDLs will be limited to COMELEC personnel visiting jail facilities and teaching them about the importance of responsible voting.</p><div style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal"> </div><p style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal">Candidates are barred from campaigning in jail facilities for “security reasons,” he stressed.</p><div style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal"><br/></div><div style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal"><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/2024/6/25/comelec-s-contracted-partner-for-overseas-voting-allays-fear-of-glitch-1647">READ: Online overseas voting will be glitch-free, project proponents say</a></div><div style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal"><br/></div><p style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal">This early, the COMELEC has already approved the assignment of one ACM in Sitio Kapihan, which serves as home to Socorro Bayanihan Services Incorporated (SBSI) members.</p><div style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal"> </div><p style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal">Garcia said that among the indigenous people’s communities to be given an ACM are those in Palawan province and in Mindoro Oriental, Bulacan, Pampanga, Bukidnon and some other parts of Mindanao.</p><div style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal"> </div><p style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal">“Inatasan natin yung Vulnerable Sectors Office, yung mga kababayan natin na mga katutubo na naglalakad ng milya o kilometro para lang makaboto... ang sabi natin baka pupwedeng dalhin na yung makina sa mismong lugar,” Garcia said.</p><div style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal"> </div><p style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal">(We have already instructed our Vulnerable Sectors Office — our IPs sometimes have to walk many kilometers to vote, so we said maybe we can bring the machines to them)</p><div style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal"><br/></div><div style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal"><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/2024/3/14/mall-voting-to-be-used-in-midterm-elections-comelec-1140">RELATED: Mall voting to be used in midterm elections: Comelec</a></div><div style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal"><br/></div><p style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal">Garcia and other COMELEC officials opened Monday, the PDLikha (Pag-asa Dala ng Paglikha) art exhibit which showcases 80 paintings and other art pieces of PDLs from the Bureau of Corrections in Muntinlupa; Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) Parañaque City Jail Female Dorm; Pasay City Jail Male Dorm and BJMP Mandaluyong City Jail Female Dorm.</p><div style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal"> </div><p style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal">Proceeds of the art exhibit will go straight to the said jail facilities.</p><div style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal"> </div><p style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal">The art exhibit which is open to the public, will run from July 1 to 5, 2024.</p><div style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal"><br/></div><div style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal"><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><div style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal"><br/></div><div style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal"><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZdzgObCE36I?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div>

<p>Garcia said that among the indigenous people’s communities to be given an ACM are those in Palawan province and in Mindoro Oriental, Bulacan, Pampanga, Bukidnon and some other parts of Mindanao.</p>

Garcia said that among the indigenous people’s communities to be given an ACM are those in Palawan province and in Mindoro Oriental, Bulacan, Pampanga, Bukidnon and some other parts of Mindanao.