MANILA — Four service providers on Wednesday submitted their respective bids for the procurement of more than 32,000 voter registration verification system (VRVS) machines to be used in the May 2019 midterm polls.
At the opening of the bids for the VRV project of the Commission on Elections-Special Bids and Awards Committee (Comelec-SBAC) in Manila, the companies that participated in the bidding are: Megadata Corporation, Next IX Inc. and Gemalto PH, Dermalog/SMS and JV SMMT-TIM, Inc. and Smartmatic International Holdings, B.V.
According to J. Thaddeus Hernan, Comelec-SBAC chairperson, the procurement of 32,067 VRVS machines is to automate the verification of voters on election day, through finger scanning.
“This is levelling up, sort of upgrading of our usual manual process of verification using the printed copies of election day and the computerized voters list, but this time we automate using a system or machine, stand alone. This is not connected with the vote counting machine whatsoever,” Hernan told reporters.
The poll body official noted that it will help ease the load of Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) during the electoral exercise.
“There will be no more discretion on the part of the electoral board or the BEIs as to the identity of the voters kasi (because) mere finger scanning lang (only) of the voter. Merong (There is a) monitor to show that he or she is really the registered voter as listed for that particular precinct,” Hernan added.
The approved budget for the contract is PHP1.16 billion.
He, however, said the system will be pilot tested in selected areas in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
“Actually, for the 2016 national elections we made use of of at least 92,509 clustered precincts all over the country. But for this particular elections we are truly going to pilot test this because it involves a big sum of money. So we are only going to pilot test this in selected areas in some parts of Mindanao and practically for the entire ARMM,” the Comelec-SBAC head said.
“Not all precincts kasi 92,000 iyon, 32,000 lang ngayon (Out of the 92,000, we will just have it in 32,000 precincts). We will distribute iyan sa (that in) big cities or highly urbanized areas for this…plus provinces of ARMM,” he added.
Hernan also said that after the conduct of the polls, the machines can be utilized for other purposes.
“These machines or system will not only be used on actual voting or election day but it must also be capable of being reconfigured to allow its use for data capturing for purposes of registration,” he said.
“You may think that we are procuring these for the purpose of verification during voting but no. These will also be used during the regular registration of voters,” Hernan added.
Aside from the machines, the provider will also train Comelec executives, technical personnel, the members of electoral board, technical support personnel in the field, and the complete technology transfer after the completion of the elections. (PNA)
