The Consulate General of the Philippines in New York reported that another of its Vote Counting Machines used in ballot feeding has malfunctioned.

The Consulate announced this in an advisory posted on its social media channels on May 2 (US time).

"Unfortunately, despite the online troubleshooting by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and Consulate personnel, the technical issue involving the VCM could not be resolved," it added.

This latest malfunction of VCM brings the total number of unusable machines at the Consulate to three.

The Consulate first reported a malfunction on April 21 when a VCM encountered a technical issue. Then on April 27, the alternate VCM experienced a failure in scanner diagnostic.

On April 28, Consul General Elmer Cato said the Consulate had requested for two more VCMs after two machines broke down that week.

Despite the technical issues, the Consulate assured that they "will continue ballot feeding using its last remaining functioning VCM."

"The Comelec has been informed of this development and has been requested to replace the defective units as soon as possible so that the ballot feeding can proceed more efficiently," it added.