Glitches did not hamper polls in vote-rich barangay in QC

MANILA — Amid the delays caused by malfunctioning vote counting machines (VCMs) and voter registration verification machines (VRVMs), the electorate in vote-rich Barangay Holy Spirit in Quezon City displayed their commitment to democracy by exercising their right of suffrage.

In an interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA), the Department of Education Supervising Official (DESO) in the polling center, Dr. Maria Noemi Moncada, said voters waited tirelessly even as two VCMs bogged down after recording only a handful of ballots at the start of the voting period.

The polling center with 12 precincts is located at the gym of the Barangay Holy Spirit Complex on Faustino St., Isidora Hills, Quezon City.

Voters from two polling precincts of the populous barangay had to wait in line until past 10 a.m. before the contingency VCMs came in to replace the malfunctioning ones.

“Nag-antay talaga sila. Walang umuwi. Walang umalis. Talagang nagtiyaga sila (They really waited. No one left or went home. They were extremely patient),” Moncada said.

“They stayed to exercise their right (of) suffrage. The glitches did not stop them from voting,” she added.

Aside from the VCM glitches, Moncada noted that the malfunctioning VRVMs also stalled voting in most of the precincts in Barangay Holy Spirit.

She said nine out of the 12 VRVMs were not functioning, forcing poll workers to manually verify registered voters instead.

“The teachers had to do manual verification of registered voters since the machines encountered some problems. The fingerprint scanning was not working,” Moncada said.

Despite the glitches, she still considered the electoral procedure in the area as generally peaceful.