IN the wake of the controversy linking the multinational company to former poll chief Andres Bautista, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday said it is not yet keen on blacklisting Smartmatic International in the forthcoming procurement of the 2025 automated election system (AES).
In an interview, Comelec chairman George Garcia said they are not yet looking at excluding Smartmatic from the forthcoming bidding process sans any valid cause.
“The Comelec cannot disqualify based on speculations, rumors, accusations, or allegations. Under Republic Act 9184, the grounds for disqualification are clear. It is hard to disqualify,” Garcia said.
Garcia is referring to the money laundering charges filed by the United States Department of Homeland Security against Bautista, who was in office from April 2015 to October 2017.
The report said the money laundered through US accounts are allegedly bribe money to Bautista from top executives of an unnamed poll technology company.
But while the blacklisting of Smartmatic is not being considered for now, Garcia said it is not ruling out the possibility of banning Smartmatic in future public biddings.
He noted there is a pending petition to disqualify Smartmatic from joining the forthcoming public bidding for the 2025 AES filed by former poll commissioner Augusto Lagman, former Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) secretary Eliseo Rio, retired Col. Leonardo Odoño, and former Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines president Franklin Ysaac.
“As of the moment, there is a petition filed before us looking to disqualify the said company. We are continuously evaluating this matter,” said the Comelec head.
“The Commission en banc will be looking at the appropriate action we should take before we begin the procurement process,” he said.
