The Commission on Elections will no longer use the 98,000 vote counting machines or VCM in the 2025 polls regardless of whether there is no budget to procure new ones, its chairperson George Garcia told lawmakers on Monday.

Even in the absence of funds, Garcia told members of the House committee on appropriations, which is looking into the Comelec's budget, that the poll body could no longer utilize the VCMs that had been deployed during past elections.

According to the Comelec chief, the 98,000 VCMs are deemed "unusable" and unable to be refurbished due to the unavailability of necessary spare parts, as well as the inability to procure components from suppliers.

"We already declared the 98,000 machines unusable. It's up to us if we get a budget or not, but we can no longer use the 98,000 machines," he said.

Garcia made the remark after Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop voiced concern about why the Comelec is still using end-life and end-of-manufacturing equipment "that is so old and can be tampered with online or otherwise."

In 2021, Garcia said the poll body had requested a P23 billion budget to procure new sets of VCMs for the 2022 elections but to no avail. Instead, the Comelec was only given P12 billion.

According to Garcia, the Comelec has been using the 98,000 VCMs in the past three elections.

"That's not really going to work well. It's like a refrigerator. No matter what you kick in there, when it doesn't get cold, it won't get cold anymore," Garcia said.

"And so the Comelec resorted to refurbishment," he said.

"Because you know technology, Mr. Chair, you are right, it changes. Our cell phone is only six months old, and [these VCMs] we have been using it for several elections. The Comelec even bought it," he added.

Garcia said the machines have already exceeded the lifespan of five years.

Back in March, the Comelec announced it was planning to integrate biometrics technology into the new election system it will be using for the 2025 polls.

However, Garcia said funding remains the primary consideration in determining the type of technology the agency will be able to utilize.

The Comelec sought a P43.7-billion budget for 2024, but the Department of Budget and Management trimmed it to P27.34 billion under the National Expenditure Program.