Aside from the poor or no telecommunication signals in remote places in the province, the poll body is also reportedly encountering problems in the security of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines because of the reported insufficiency of police and military who were earlier deployed to the conflict-stricken province of Abra in order to ensure the conduct of a peaceful and orderly elections.
However, lawyer Ricardo Lampac, provincial election officer, said to augment the lack of police personnel, barangay volunteers were tapped by the poll body to secure the perimeter of the polling places where the PCOS machines will be kept during the transmission tests and the sealing of the machines.
To ensure that data will be correctly transmitted to the recipient servers, the towns of Bontoc, Sagada, Bauko and Tadian will be using the universal serial bus (USB) to send and transmit election results in their respective areas from the municipal to the provincial canvassing areas as strong signals from mobile phone networks are being experienced by local residents.
On the other hand, very small aperture transmission (VSAT) will be used to transmit results in the towns of Paracelis and some parts of Bauko as it has been effectively and efficiently tested in these areas.
For remote areas like selected far flung communities of Bontoc, Tadian and Besao and the entire town of Barlig and Natonin, which up to now have no network signal, these areas will be exclusively using the broadband global area network (BGAN) which utilizes satellite transmission technology in transmitting the election results to the municipal and provincial board of canvassers.
Lampac admitted some areas are allegedly having difficulty in transmitting election results based on the earlier testing conducted. But in the end, the results get sent because of the persistence of machine operators who want all the data counted.
At present, the PCOS machines for the 10 towns of this landlocked province have already been dispatched to their respective destinations in preparation for the distribution to the assigned polling centers in time for the casting of votes on election day.
The Skyland of the Philippines (Mountain Provinces)
