BY ASHZEL HACHERO and GERARD NAVAL
THE Supreme Court (SC) was asked yesterday to cancel the P17.9 billion contract agreement between the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the joint venture led by South Korea’s Miru Systems for the Automated Election System (AES) to be used in the 2025 local and national polls.
Elections chairman George Garcia said annulling the contract would put at risk the computerization of the midterm elections next year and raises the possibility of the country going back to the manual system of elections.
“Based on Republic Act No 9369 (Automated Election Law), all national and local elections must be automated. Since 2010, we have used the automated system of elections. If ever, this would mark the first time since 2010 that we won’t have an automated election,” Garcia said.
He added reverting to manual elections would be an illegal act on the part of the Comelec.
“In such a scenario, we would be violating the Poll Automation Law,” Garcia said.
The Comelec has awarded the Full Automation System with Transparency Audit and Count (FASTrAC) project to the joint venture led by South Korean firm, Miru Systems.
Miru is already set to start manufacturing the automated counting machines (ACMs) to be used in the May 2025 elections.
Aside from revoking the agreement, former Caloocan Rep. Edgar “Egay Erice” also asked the SC to issue a temporary restraining order and/or writ of preliminary injunction to stop the Comelec from implementing its resolution awarding the multi-billion peso contract to Miru and its partners St. Timothy Construction Corp. and Centerpoint Solutions Technologies.
The 50-page petition for certiorari was filed a day after the High Court ruled that the poll body committed grave abuse of discretion when it disqualified Smartmatic-TIM from participating in the bidding for the 2025 AES contract.
In its decision favoring Smartmatic, the SC did not nullify the multi-billion contract that the Comelec inked last month with Miru.
However, SC spokesperson Camille Ting said the SC ruling was not tantamount to upholding the Comelec-Miru agreement since the validity of their contract was not the issue presented in the case before the High Court.
AUTOMATED ELECTION LAW
Erice told the SC that Comelec’s deal with Miru violated the provisions of RA 9369, particularly on the bidding procedures and the use of prototype machines during the election process.
“Pinag-aralan kong mabuti ito at nakita ko na ‘yung Miru contract ay in violation of Republic Act 9369. Una sa procedure, maraming hindi nasunod na procedure. Pangalawa, ‘yung gagamiting machine, prototype which is against the law. Gagawin tayong guinea pig (I studied this well and I saw the Miru contract is in violation of Republic Act 9369. First, the procedures, many procedures, were not followed. Second, the machines that will be used are prototypes, which is against the law. We will become their guinea pigs),” Erice told reporters after filing the petition.
Erice likewise said the contract is highly disadvantageous to the government, describing it as a “robbery in progress” considering that the government had not spent over P6 billion in the last five automated polls in the country.
“I think the government stands to lose around P10 billion because of this contract. It’s the first time that we will be spending around P18 billion,” he said.
MANUAL ELECTIONS
Garcia said that should the SC grant Erice’s plea for a restraining order or injunction, “it means we will have to stop manufacturing the machines. It will also mean that all our preparations will be delayed. The bottom line here is, we may not be able to automate our elections.”
Garcia said a scenario will mean going back to the tedious and lengthy manual election process.
“We cannot have an expeditious and credible elections, which is the main goal of the automated elections,” he said.
Garcia said they had expected that cases similar to Erice’s petition would be filed since the Comelec cannot please everybody with its decisions.
“What is more important is we can defend our actions because what we did is transparent, public, and pursuant to the law on procurement,” he said.
IRREGULARITIES
Erice denied his petition has anything to do with Smartmatic or if the company was behind his move, adding that he has been readying the petition for several weeks now.
“They (Smartmatic) have nothing to do with this petition, they have their own fight too.
Their issue is about not being able to participate in the bidding, my fight is about this robbery in progress,” he said.
But, he said, the SC ruling bolstered his suspicion that there were irregularities in the awarding of the contract to Miru.
Erice pointed out that the poll body in November 2022 certified that the 97 machines used in the 2022 polls were still fully functioning and in good working condition, and yet, in less than a year, it declared they were unserviceable even if they were, he added, covered by warranties issued by Smartmatic.
“Ire-refurbish. Kung may kulang, bumili ng kaunti, gamitin. Sanay na sanay na ang Comelec diyan. Samantalang ito nakakatakot. Kung may magagambala dito, ‘yung robbery in progress (It [machines] can be easily refurbished, and they [Comelec] can buy some units to use. The Comelec knows this very well. This [case] is concerning. If there is one to be affected by this, it is the robbery in progress),” he said.
Erice also told reporters he is mulling the filing of an impeachment complaint against Garcia but did not elaborate.
“I’m actually contemplating filing an impeachment against the commissioner,” he said.
