ANGELES CITY, Pampanga — The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Angeles City kicked off the final testing and sealing (FTS) of automated counting machines (ACMs) on Saturday, May 3, in preparation for the May 12 midterm elections.
Led by City Election Officer Atty. Charmaine Casquejo, the FTS started at Jose P. Dizon Elementary School in Barangay Pandan, with 61 poll workers participating. The citywide FTS will run until May 6, covering all 39 schools designated as polling centers.
Electoral Board Members (EBMs) conducted a full test of ACMs — from machine initialization to vote casting using test ballots. Manual counts were then cross-checked with ACM outputs to ensure accuracy.
The process was observed by Dr. Nenita Jorquia, school staff, members of the Philippine National Police (PNP), and Argene Pangilinan, a watcher from Team Lazatin. No representative from Team Albayalde attended, despite invitations from the poll body.
Following the tests, ACMs were sealed and secured under the joint custody of the PNP and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) until election day.
All 249 ACMs and official ballots were delivered to voting centers on May 2. A total of 747 personnel will be deployed across 249 clustered precincts, with additional staff ensuring order and sanitation at polling places.
For greater accessibility, eight schools with upper floors will offer Priority Polling Places (PPPs) on the ground floor for senior citizens, PWDs, and pregnant women — the first such setup in Pampanga. These PPPs will operate from 5:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
To address signal issues that hampered transmissions in previous elections, 25 schools will use 32 Starlink units, backed by major telecom providers Smart, Globe, and Dito. EBMs have been instructed not to shut down machines in case of failed transmissions but to bring them to the canvassing center at Angeles City Library instead. All machines are battery-powered and transmission-ready during transport.