Gordon tells Comelec: Use tracking system to ensure
prompt distribution of voting machines

Senator Richard J. Gordon (Ind.) today advised the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to ensure that a tracking system is in place during the distribution of the voting machines to guarantee that all the equipment would reach the polling places in time.

Gordon, father of election modernization in the country and principal author of the amended Automated Elections System Law, said that the poll body must know when the machines would reach every polling precinct nationwide.

He also urged the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) to take part in the process by confirming the arrival of the machines or reporting the delay thereof.

"During the transportation of the machines, the Comelec should know where these machines are at any time. That is why there should be a tracking system. If you can have GPS (global positioning system), that would be better," Gordon said during the Senate hearing regarding the updates on the preparation for the May 2010 elections.

"We have to assure the people that the machines, which have already been tested, will be delivered to a certain polling place at a particular time. If it does not come on time, the PPCRV would immediately report it," he added.

Gordon stressed that the public must be assured that the Comelec's preparations for the May 2010 automated elections are going fine to allay fears of a no election scenario.

"When we succeed here, the country would feel a surge of confidence. That's what I want to see. We can heave a sigh of relief because, for once, we are able to have honest, clean, speedy and credible elections," he said.