A Vote Counting Machine Was Burned In Zamboanga del Sur
BURNT – One of the eight stored VCMs or Vote Counting Machines was burned down in the town San Pablo, Zamboanga del Sur.
During the 2019 midterm election day, last Monday (May 13, 2019), some Vote Counting Machines temporarily ceased functions after overheating due to massive work loads.
While in another news, a different level of heat was reported on one of the Vote Counting Machines in San Pablo, Zamboanga del Sur. This vote counting machine was burned severely.
This was after a fire reportedly broke out in San Pablo Central Elementary School in Barangay Poblacion, the same school where eight malfunctioning vote counting machines and other polling instruments were put for storage.
However, just one vote counting machine was ruined by the fire. Local authorities in the area were able to save the seven other VCMs. This is according to the report of the local police.
As of now, the fire incident is being probed by the authorities for possible arson case. Police also claimed that the fire was “deliberately set with the use of gasoline”, basing on the investigation process done by the Bureau of Fire Protection.
Purok Maloloy-on was also startled and alerted with a sudden explosion before the fire incident. The blast happened near the fire station. The initial investigation after the blast concluded that it was from an M67 fragmentation hand grenade.
This is based on an article from CNN.
Further investigation is still on-going and the suspects for both of the incidents were not yet identified.
There is also a separate incident of burned VCMs with 200 unrecorded ballots in the province of Isabela back in the day of the election. Commsion of Elections is already investigating the incident.
That is all there is to it, at least for now. We’ll post updates as soon as we got them.