THE ALLIANCE of Concerned Teachers deplored the slow repair of defective vote-counting machines, the reason why some teachers had to stay in poll precincts until Tuesday morning.

The group said that at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, it received reports from several schools in Manila and Quezon City that teachers were either awaiting replacements for the “corrupted” SD cards for their VCM or were still feeding ballots to machines after waiting all night for their repair.

“Kaiba sa ipinagmamalaki ng Comelec na maagap nitong pagtugon sa mga aberya ang pumapasok na ulat mula mismo sa mga gurong nasa ground. Marami sa ating teacher-poll workers ang kahapon pa nagkaproblema sa VCM, pero ngayong araw pa lang natugunan ng Comelec. Marami ang nasa mga eskwelahan pa rin at naghihintay ng kapalit na SD card, ng mag-aayos ng nagma-malfunction na mga VCM, at napakaraming iba pang aberya sa eleksiyong ito. Napakabagal ng Comelec, napakapalpak!” Raymond Basilio, the group’s secretary general, said.

“Guro na naman ang bumabalikat sa kapalpakan ng gobyernong ito! At napakalaking sampal sa mga gurong BEI ang deklarasyon ng Comelec na tagumpay ang eleksiyon habang ni hindi pa sila nakakauwi hanggang ngayon!” he added.

The group identified schools where VCM problems were encountered in Quezon City: Cielito Zamora Junior High School, Betty Go Belmonte Elementary School, Bagumbayan Elementary School, President Corazon Aquino Elementary School, Tandang Sora National High School, Carlos Albert HS, Lupang Pangako Elementary School, and precinct cluster 341 at the Brgy. Holy Spirit Covered Court.

In Manila, teacher-poll workers were still at Villamor High School, Arellano High School, Burgos High School, C. Arellano High School, and Manila High School until Tuesday morning.

The group gathered through its monitoring hotlines reports of VCMs breaking down as soon as they opened them at 6 a.m. on Monday, May 9.

Until voting hours ended, the group continued to receive reports of machines still not working.

“Around 64 percent of reports we received had something to do with machine errors and irregularities. It resulted in the disenfranchisement of thousands of voters and the grave overworking of our teachers, among others. Many of our electoral boards started rendering services at 4 a.m. on May 9, and too many of them are still in their precincts guarding VCMs and hundreds of ballots that are yet to be casted to the machine. Sa puntong ito, hindi lang paliwanag ang hinihingi namin sa Comelec, kundi kagyat na aksyon at pananagutan,” Basilio said.

ACT also reiterated its call for the payment of overtime pay for teachers not only for those who stayed in schools hours after voting ended.