MANILA — Some voters and social media users on Monday called out the Commission on Elections (Comelec) over the options it offered to voters who encountered vote-counting machine (VCM) glitches on election day.

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The Philippines is holding its national and local elections from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. But just over an hour after polls opened, some voters took to social media to complain about malfunctioning VCMs, which forced some to surrender their accomplished ballots to the electoral board for a “batch feeding” later on.

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Even Barry Gutierrez, the spokesperson of presidential candidate Leni Robredo, encountered a similar VCM issue in his precinct.

I was in line to vote at 5:30 am. Now they're telling us may problema daw sa VCM and we should just come back. Walang oras na binigay. Ano na ito @COMELEC?

— Barry Gutierrez (@barrygutierrez3) May 8, 2022

"I was in line to vote at 5:30 a.m. Now they're telling us may problema daw sa VCM and we should just come back. Walang oras na binigay. Ano na ito Comelec?" Gutierrez tweeted.

(No schedule was given. What is this, Comelec?)

Under Comelec's rules, a voter has 2 options when the VCM in their precinct malfunctions.

1) Proceed in casting their votes and sign a waiver of their right to be issued a voter's receipt. Their accomplished ballots would then be batch-fed by the electoral board before the close of polls.

2) Wait for the VCM to be replaced or the issue to be resolved before casting their votes.

"Reports of delayed precinct opening, malfunctioning VCMs, and voters being asked to leave their ballots unread (by the machine)... Not a great start to Halalan 2022! Election integrity will be key to way forward once results are out. You had one job, Comelec!" political analyst Cleve Arguelles said in a tweet.

But Comelec acting spokesman John Rex Laudiangco explained that batch feeding of ballots was nothing new.

"Mga kababayan hindi po ito first time, nangyari na ito sa mga nakaraang eleksyon at wala naman po tayong nabalitaang aberya sa batch feeding," he said in a press conference.

(This is not the first time, this happened in previous elections and no problems were reported with batch feeding.)

He added that poll watchers and even the voters themselves can witness the batch feeding of ballots once a new and functioning machine arrives in the precinct.

As of 10:27 a.m. Monday, about 1,867 VCM issues have already been reported to Comelec, according to commissioner George Garcia.