MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections on Aug. 10 conducted a media walkthrough of the data center that will process results for the first-ever Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) parliamentary elections, a transparency measure Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia said was meant to head off allegations of hidden vote-counting infrastructure ahead of the Sept. 14 polls, according to The Manila Times.
Reporters were given access to Data Center 1 at VITRO Makati 2 (ePLDT), which Garcia described as the most secure of the commission's facilities because it houses the primary Comelec server, as well as a backup facility operated by VITRO in Parañaque. "We also had a walkthrough previously so that there will be no allegation that there are secret servers," Garcia said, according to The Manila Times. "So it is our obligation, not only ours in the Comelec but likewise VITRO, all of you, it is our obligation that the results not only be fast but [also] credible and acceptable and the only way to do that is to be more transparent."
The Sept. 14 elections will determine 80 seats in the Bangsamoro Parliament and involve roughly 2.4 million registered voters across 5,212 precincts, according to MindaNews. Garcia told reporters in an Aug. 4 briefing, cited by MindaNews, that preparations were "95 percent ready," with critical logistics — including the printing and packing of ballots — to be completed by the end of August and full deployment of election materials to regional hubs finished by the first week of September. Roughly 20,000 to 21,000 teachers and school personnel are undergoing two weeks of election-duty training that began the week of Aug. 3, alongside an estimated 3,000 police officers being certified by the Department of Science and Technology to operate vote-counting machines if needed.
Security remains an open concern. The Philippine National Police has said it will deploy 8,299 personnel across BARMM for the elections, a figure that could grow depending on the PNP's threat assessment, according to earlier wire reporting. Comelec and the PNP have described the overall peace and order situation as "manageable," noting that some areas previously flagged under a "red" security category have since been downgraded, though officials have not disclosed how many localities remain in that highest-risk tier. Garcia separately identified misinformation — rather than the voting process itself — as the "biggest challenge" facing the historic polls, warning that fabricated quotes attributed to candidates and officials were already circulating on social media, according to MindaNews.
Neither Comelec nor the Bangsamoro Transition Authority has released a public, precinct-level breakdown of remaining security risk areas as of this report, and it remains unclear how many of the "critical" preparations Garcia cited on Aug. 4 have since been completed.
Context
The Sept. 14 vote is the first parliamentary election under the Bangsamoro Organic Law, a milestone in the region's transition from an appointed transitional authority to an elected government. It follows years of delay in the broader Bangsamoro electoral calendar and comes as Comelec separately manages preparations for the November 2026 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections, which have faced their own postponement debate in Congress. Comelec has said it has no authority to unilaterally postpone either election absent legislative or executive action.