FALSE

The Catholic church has no role in replacing vote-counting machines (VCM) at polling precincts.

But vlogger Maharlika in a video posted on Facebook on May 9 implied that it has after her family and other voters at a precinct in Project 8, Quezon City were made to wait for a VCM to get replaced.

The Omnibus Election Code only allows inspectors, watchers, Commission on Elections representatives and voters inside and around the polling place.

When a VCM or its secure digital (SD) card malfunctions, the Comelec’s contingency plan requires inspectors to report this to supervisors of the Department of Education assigned to the classroom. After Comelec officials are notified, city officers will keep the broken VCM as the supervisors replace the machine.

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FactRakers is a Philippines-based fact-checking initiative of journalism majors at the University of the Philippines-Diliman working under the supervision of Associate Professor Yvonne T. Chua of the University of the Philippines’ Journalism Department. Associate Professor Ma. Diosa Labiste, also of the Journalism Department, serves as editorial consultant.

The name of the initiative, coined from the words “fact” and “raker,” is inspired by the term “muckrakers,” first used in the early 1900s by American president Theodore Roosevelt to express his annoyance at progressive, reform-minded journalists at the time.

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